POPULAR 

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



BY 

WILLIAM SEWELL , B.D., 

LATE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF OXFORD. 



LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1843. 



NOTICE TO THE READER, 



The following pages are an attempt to bring forward, 
in a form more popular than abstruse, that part of 
the Christian Evidences which may be found in the 
Witness of the Church. To complete it would require 
t at the same principles should be traced in the 
t\ tides, Liturgy, Polity, and especially the Sacra- 
mental Ordinances of our own branch of the Church, 
which is here more immediately referred to. But 
whether the line of thought thus opened may not be 
left to be followed up by some hand more able to 
place it in an interesting light, or perhaps whether, as 
the principles of the Church are becoming more 
understood and recognised, the argument itself may 
not be unneeded, can scarcely be determined, till it 
is seen if it is required or appreciated. It is idle to 
waste time in writing books, or to load the press 
with publishing them, if they are not read. 

Perhaps in all writings of the present day it is 
safer to consider them as rough unhewn stones thrown 



iv 



under water to lay a foundation, on which at some 
future time men with more confirmed habits of self- 
discipline, and more enlarged and definite views of 
those great truths to which at present we are only 
opening our eyes, may raise a solid and permanent bul- 
wark against error. Those who have themselves been 
insensible to truth, may, even when they begin to per- 
ceive it, be permitted to think diffidently of their own 
ability to set it forth in a correct form ; and to ask that, 
if anything escapes them which may seem contrary 
to the teaching of the Church, it may be considered 
as an unintentional error. 

Exeter College, Oxford, 
Nov. 7, 1842. 



CHAPTER I. 



I am accustomed every morning, soon after sun- 
rise, to walk and meditate by the side of the river 
Hooghly. At this hour the banks are crowded with 
Hindoos bathing themselves, and performing other 
ceremonies of their devotions. And with them are 
generally Brahmins seated on the bank under the trees, 
reading their religious books, and repeating their 
prayers. These are Gooroos, or religious teachers. 
And it is pleasing to observe the respect with which 
they are treated, especially by children and young per- 
sons, who are seen continually kneeling down to them, 
and offering them little presents. It is a sign that, 
w r ith all the errors of the Hindoo religion, the spirit of 
faith and childlike obedience is not lost among them ; 
and where this is still alive, who shall despair of 
bringing men to the knowledge of the truth ? 

Am , n-g them I observed one morning a Brahmin 
younger than the rest, whose pure and noble cast of 
countenance, marked also by deep thoughtfulness and 
melancholy, and a singular earnestness and abstracted- 
ness of devotion, affected me with more than ordinary 
interest. Every morning, at the same hour, I found 
him in the same spot ; and, as my eyes were naturally 
drawn to him, he at length observed me in return. 
Many days passed before either of us ventured to ad- 

PART I. B 



2 



INTRODUCTION. 



[CHAP. I. 



dress the other, though we scarcely passed, after the 
close of his devotions, without a hesitating, half- recog- 
nising look, such as is common between persons who 
wish to know each other more intimately; and I 
was therefore neither surprised nor displeased to find 
one morning that he followed me in my walk, and on 
joining me expressed a wish to converse. 

I have always been delighted at such opportunities 
of understanding from educated and good Hindoos the 
real doctrines of their religion, and of explaining to 
them the doctrines of the Church of Christ. It is only 
by such free and kindly intercourse, and by deriving 
information from the best men, that the prejudiced and 
often erroneous opinions which exist on each side can 
be removed ; and w r here there is a willingness and 
desire either to learn the truth ourselves, or to teach 
it to others, we may fairly hope and believe that the 
spirit of God is there working and preparing men's 
hearts to receive it. 

Sir, he addressed me, after the usual salutations and 
apologies, I have observed, for many mornings past, that 
you are in the habit of frequenting this spot, and that 
your eyes have been directed to me with a look of pity, 
but not of unkindness. May I ask, if you are one of 
those who deride our religious ceremonies, and regard 
these prayers and ablutions, in which you now see so 
many of my countrymen engaged, as mere idolatry ? 

Far from it, I replied ; I am myself a servant and 
minister of the Most High God, and cannot ridicule 
devotion, even where I think it is accompanied with 
useless forms or evil errors. You believe in an Al- 
mighty God, and you come here to worship him, such 
as you believe him to be, and with forms which you 
have been taught to think will please and honour him. 
We also worship God, but such as we know him to 
be, and with forms which He himself has taught us, 
To believe in God is good, and to fear him is good, 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



8 



and to love him " with all our hearts, and with all our 
minds, and with all our soul, and with all our strength ; 
to worship him, to give him thanks, to put our whole 
trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name 
and his word, and to serve him truly all the days of 
our life." 1 He who does this from the heart, even 
if he knows not the real nature of God, I cannot de- 
spise. Rather I honour and love him ; and pray, is 
I hope and believe, that God may be preparing to 
bring him to the knowledge of his Gospel. 

Sir, he replied, after a pause, your words are good. 
They are better than those which before this I have 
heard from others of your nation, who only mock at 
our religion, without professing to have any of their 
own. Man is the creature of God, and cannot live 
without God in the world ; and even a false religion 
is better than none at all. 

You are right, I said : " It is the fool who hath 
said in his heart, there is no God ;" and such men, our 
holy books declare, are " corrupt and abominable." 2 
It is not from them that you should learn the religion 
of our nation. 

Neither, he replied, should you judge of ours by the 
conduct of bad men, or by the practice of the common 
people, who are incapable of true knowledge. You 
believe that we worship idols, you misunderstand the 
object of our ceremonies and the meaning of our insti- 
tutions, and then you condemn us. 

I am willing, I answered, to learn your religion 
only from those who know and practise it aright, that 
is, as your books and your authorized teachers com- 
mand. It is hard for the best of men or the most 
holy of systems to make the multitude walk in the 
path of truth ; and it is not because the children go 
astray, that the fathers are to be censured. And yet 



1 Church Catechism. 



2 Psalm liii. 2. 
B 2 



4 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



I scarcely know how to judge of your religion except 
from what I see in the practices of your people. I 
know not how to distinguish between these and any 
better doctrines which the wise among you may teach. 

Why is this ? he asked : Is the father dishonest be- 
cause the child steals ? 

No, I replied, not if the father warn, and rebuke, 
and punish him for his sin. Though all mankind 
in the world fell into wickedness, He who made 
the world would not be wicked, because He remon- 
strates with us through the voice of our conscience, 
sends among us his ministers to deter us from wicked- 
ness, and punishes it with his vengeance. And though 
millions in a nation fell into idolatry, yet a wise man 
would not call the nation or the system idolatrous so 
long as those who ruled it, — its kings and its priests, — 
openly contended against the crime, and warned the 
people of their error. But if they are silent, and ac- 
quiesce, they must share in the general sin. And so 
it is with you. You may not profess idolatry your- 
self in your heart, nor command the evil practices 
which the people mix with their religion. And the 
doctrines which you read and believe in your holy 
books are many of them pure and good. But you 
allow the evil to prevail, because you think it more 
fit to affect the common people. You do not hold out 
the truth against error, and therefore you are guilty of 
the error itself. 

Sir, he replied, might I not lay the same thing to 
your charge ? Have your rulers and your priests taken 
pains to teach us what they believe the true religion, 
or to promote among us the glory of God, by with- 
drawing us from what they declare is offensive to the 
Being whom they worship ? Have they not allowed 
us for years to practise what they call idolatry ; and 
therefore are they not parties to it themselves? 

It was a painful and a just retort ; and I was silent 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



5 



for some minutes, while he looked steadfastly at me 
to observe how I was affected. 

Your question, I answered after a pause, is full of 
sadness to one who loves his religion and his country ; 
and it might seem prudent to evade it ; but it is better 
to confess the truth. We have not taken pains to teach 
you what we know to be truth, and what God has 
commanded us to teach you. We have thought more 
of extending our empire, of governing you as you like 
to be governed, of promoting your happiness on earth, 
and of accommodating ourselves to your prejudices, 
than of setting before your souls the light of truth, 
and bringing you to the knowledge of God. And God, 
it is to be feared, will one day punish us for this our 
great and grievous sin. And yet the rulers, whom 
you see in this land, are only a part and a small part 
of a mighty nation, as a finger is a part of the hand, 
or as a hand is a part of the body. And the rulers in 
that nation, to whom those who are here belong, have 
before this boldly done their duty in proclaiming the 
truth within their own country, and deterring the com- 
mon people, who are there ignorant and evil-minded 
as elsewhere, from dishonouring God by evil worship, 
•or by corrupting his truth. If they have been silent 
here, it has been because they feared to shock your 
prejudices. They feared man more than God. It is 
as if your Brahmins and priests denounced idolatry, 
and preached a pure doctrine against the errors of the 
people, over all the rest of the country, and were silent 
only in one province, say in Calcutta. Even this 
would be very wrong. But you are silent everywhere. 
Whatever you may believe yourselves, you retain it 
even-where within your own minds, and allow the ig- 
norant and poor to wander blindly where they choose. 
And therefore you are responsible for their sins and 
follies. If you strove against them, you would be in- 
nocent, even when you failed, 

B 3 



6 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



Sir, he replied, you allow that the greater part of 
mankind are blind and ignorant — that they cannot 
discern the truth as it really is — that heavenly things 
are too high for them, and must be brought down to 
their comprehension in some more earthly form. It 
is for this reason that we permit them to use images, 
and to practise rites, which in themselves are nothing, 
but which enable them to see the great truths of reli- 
gion, as weak-eyed mortals, who cannot bear the erful- 
gence of the sun, gaze on it reflected in water. 

My friend, I answered, we have among us in Eu- 
rope, among the millions who profess to believe in 
Christ, a large body who speak as you speak. Some 
of them may be found in this country, and they call 
themselves Roman Catholics. They also, with us, 
hold a faith which they believe to be true, and assert 
to have been delivered to them from heaven. But 
they think it is not sufficient by itself to engage the 
affections and influence the conduct of ignorant men, 
of women, and children, and the uneducated, and the 
poor, and they allow them, as you do, to make to them- 
selves images, and to worship created things, instead of 
the one true Gocl, and to fancy that their salvation 
depends on outward ceremonies and rites, and to re- 
main ignorant of true wisdom and true goodness. 
They do this, because they despair of bringing the 
high doctrines of Christianity to a level with the un- 
derstanding of the many. They fear that if no such 
concession were made to the wants and weakness of 
human nature, human nature would rebel against all 
religion. And they think it better and safer for 
society, and happier for the people themselves, that 
they should be kept in obedience to their priests, and 
in adherence to their faith, though by artifice and 
error, than be allowed to break through all restraints, 
and wander off into infidelity and shameless wicked- 
ness. They adopted this plan at first from a good mo- 



CKAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



1 



tive, to benefit the souls of men ; they retain it, too 
many, it may be feared, for the purpose of securing 
their own power over them, which power they often 
abuse. And you, if you will forgive me for saying it, 
seem to me to have acted much in a similar way, and 
with similar objects — the good among you thinking of 
the good of others, and the bad only of their own in- 
terest. Shall I tell you how we protest against this 
conduct of the Roman Catholics ? 

I have met with some of the Christians whom you 
describe, said the Brahmin, and they have often argued 
with me and endeavoured to convince me of the errors 
of our religion. I would willingly hear what you say 
of them, though I may not think, as you do, that it 
will apply to ourselves. 

We tell them first then, I proceeded, what they 
know as well as we do, that, in the sacred books de- 
livered to us from God, we have a positive, distinct 
commandment from his mouth to abstain from all 
such practices. I will repeat it to you in the words 
in which God himself delivered it, and in which it is 
repeated every sabbath-day in our churches, and is 
taught to our children. It is the second of his ten 
commandments. The first commands us to have none 
other gods but Him. The second runs thus : — 
, " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, 
nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, 
or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. 
Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them : 
for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit 
the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third 
and fourth generation of them that hate me, and show 
mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep 
my commandments." 

And a great part of our sacred books is full of words 
like these, denouncing God's wrath and indignation 
against not only those who worship other gods than 
Him, but those who worship him under any form, or 



8 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



name, or character, but that which he has revealed to 
us. For this is the meaning of the commandment. 
God has given us a law not to commit murder ; and 
it binds us to abstain from every act by which the life 
of a fellow-creature can be in any way injured. He 
commands us not to steal ; and we are bound to 
avoid the slightest trespass on the property of others. 
He forbids adultery ; and by this is implied, as in your 
own language, that he forbids every unclean thought, 
and unchaste act, as well as the grossest of such acts, 
adultery. And so it is when he forbids us to make or 
to worship graven images. A graven image is a 
representation of God — a perverted, degraded, and 
profane representation of Him who, in the words of 
your own holy books, is " unchangeable, holy, eternal, 
supreme, the creator, the preserver and destroyer of 
the world ; the support of all things, the one with true 
wisdom, the ruler of the w r orld, unborn, imperishable, 
undecaying, who is not to be apprehended by the 
senses, who is always and alone, and is exempt from 
birth, and vicissitude, and death — of one essence, ever 
pure as free from defects ; " 1 . or, to use the words of 
our own holy belief, it is a profane representation of 
the " one living and true God, everlasting, without 
body, parts, or passions; of infinite pow T er, wisdom, 
and goodness ; the maker and preserver of all things, 
both visible and invisible." 2 

And if we may not degrade and insult the majesty 
of that great Being by a graven image, neither may 
we degrade it by exhibiting him in any form, or under 
any names, or with any attributes, but such as he 
really possesses, and such as we know him to possess, 
because he has revealed them to us. For in no other 
way can we know what God is, except by his own re- 
velation. If therefore God be one, and you represent 

1 Vishnu Purana, Wilson's Trans., chap, ii., p, 7. 
2 Articles of Religion. 1 . 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



9 



him as many — if he be separate and distinct from his 
creatures, and you teach that he is the same with them — 
if he loves a spiritual worship, and you teach men to 
worship him in empty forms — if he so hates sin that 
no works of mere man can expiate it in his eyes, and 
you think to purify your souls by your own works — 
and if he has revealed himself unto man once, and 
once only, in the form of man, even as we know is true, 
in the person of Jesus Christ, and you write that he 
has appeared often under the names of Vishnu and 
Brahma, and Kudra and Chrishna, and many others ; 
then you are misrepresenting his true nature, and 
profaning his holy name, and therefore violating his 
second great commandment, and provoking his indig- 
nation, m the same way, if not in the same degree, as 
if you pictured him to yourself in the form of a graven 
image, or a shapeless idol, or some brute animal. 
How much more if you allow others — those who are 
walking in darkness, and ought to be enlightened by 
your light — to fall down and worship before such 
creatures, as if they either were divine, or could in any 
way picture or shadow forth the mystery of the 
Almighty God ! 

My friend seemed struck with my words ; and I 
proceeded. We speak thus, I said, to the Roman 
Catholics, because they acknowledge that this com- 
mandment came from God, though they do not like 
to obey it, and sometimes put it out of their sacred 
books, although God has expressly forbidden us either 
to add or to take away aught that he has written in 
them . 

But it may be that God has given the same com- 
mandment to you, though not in the same words or 
form. 

How can that be, he asked, if we have never seen 
your holy books ? 

Will you answer me, I said, some questions ? 



10 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



Willingly, lie replied. 

When, I said, an all-wise, and all-powerful, and 
all-good Creator creates a creature, does it not seem 
that he will impress on it his own image, and lay it 
under a rule to act and to feel as he the Creator acts 
and feels himself? 

B. Certainly. 

C. And we cannot imagine that God should have 
done otherwise, when he created the world ? 

B. We cannot. 

C. And yet there are many things which men both 
do and like by their natural constitution, which yet we 
believe to be contrary to God's will and law, to be sins 
and crimes ? 

B. There are. 

C. But these are not universal, and men do not 
praise them or like them for themselves. And they 
are punished and blamed, and disliked, even by those 
who follow them, except inasmuch as they procure 
other advantages : for instance, no man loves to steal 
for its own sake, or praises adultery as good, or en- 
courages murder as murder, though they like money, 
and sensual pleasure, and victory over their enemies ; 
and to obtain these, do not scruple to steal, and com- 
mit adultery and murder, if their ends cannot be 
obtained in any other way. 

B. Why have you said this? 

C. Because I wish you to make a distinction. 
Those things which men do, not for their own sake 
as liking them, but for the sake of something else 
and as disliking them, cannot be supposed to be en- 
joined on us by God. They are not really natural. 
But that which we all universally, whether young 
or old, wise or unwise, good or bad, approve and dis- 
approve by the instinct of our own heart, that must 
have been stamped upon us by the Being who created 
us ? 

B. You would say, for instance, that the desire of 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



li 



food was common to all men, and therefore natural ; 
and therefore that the taking of food was a law en- 
joined on us by God ? 
C. I do. 

B. But that the. desire of this or that particular 
food, or the desire of it to excess, though very com- 
mon, is not in the same manner universal, and there- 
fore not natural ? 

C. Certainly. And so when I look at the fabric 
of watches or any other machines, I see in all of them 
springs and wheels, and contrivances to produce cer- 
tain motions. I argue, therefore, that such motions 
were intended by their maker. But if I find in some 
of them a wheel broken, or a spring clogged, or dust 
and dirt in the works, I do not argue that the maker 
so designed it, because it is not universal. 

B. I understand you. 

C. And the more so, if, while the works are evi- 
dently framed to produce a movement, this clog or 
impediment evidently tends to stop it. And, for this 
reason also, man's vicious desires and evil actions 
cannot have been intended by his Maker — can have 
formed no part of his original design — cannot therefore 
indicate His real nature and wishes, because they evi- 
dently interfere with the great object and rule of all 
the other parts of man's nature, which is to make him 
good and happy. 

B. Certainly. 

C. And now, having guarded against a very com- 
mon mistake, I will ask you if you have in your own 
heart, and if all men universally have in theirs, any- 
thing which would prove that to set before the minds 
of others a low, false, unworthy representation of the 
Divine Being must be displeasing to him ? Let us 
apply it to yourself. If you had a child, or a friend, 
or a subject, or any persons far beneath you, you 
would desire that they should look up to you with 



12 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



reverence and awe, should know you as you really are, 
should not mix with their ideas of your nature any 
false or degrading notions — you would wish that your 
name should be honoured and hallow r ed in their eyes? 

B. I should. 

C. And if your servants, even with good intentions, 
set before those children, or those dependents, ridi- 
culous and deformed, or hideous and loathsome figures 
in clav or wood, and told them that these were like to 
you ; or if they invented tales and stories of what you 
did, and said, and thought, but which were false and 
degrading ; or if they led others to believe that you were 
like themselves, were subject to the same weaknesses, 
and delighted in the same follies or sins, would you, 
and would all men in the same place, feel indignant 
and chastise them ; even though it was done by them 
with the best intentions — to keep your image before 
those who were to serve you, and to endeavour to im 
press upon their weak and imperfect minds as much 
truth as they were capable of receiving, rather than 
allow them, as it might seem, to sink wholly into 
error ? 

B. We should all feel indignant alike. 

C. And generally, I continued, it is a thing which 
we dislike and are offended at, if our inferiors mistake 
our character, speak falsely of us, misrepresent our 
actions, depreciate our motives, caricature our figures, 
describe us otherwise than w r e wish to be described ; 
it is a common and universal desire among all men, 
and therefore natural to the human mind, to be thought 
of as we deserve, and to be honoured by a true esti- 
mate of our power and goodness. 

B. It is. 

C. But God made the mind of man ? 

B. True. 

C. And he made it after his own image, to like what 
he likes himself, and to hate what he hates himself ? 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY, 



13 



B. It is probable. 

C. It is more than probable ; for we cannot, as you 
confessed, imagine that an Almighty and all-good 
Creator should create a creature with any other law r 
written upon his heart but that which his Creator 
approved. He may have permitted him to err by his 
own self-will, but he cannot have given him a law to 
err, and this desire is a law, for it is universal ; all 
men feel it. 

B. It is so. 

C. 0, my friend, I continued, may it not be, then, 
that God has given to you, who are not Christians, 
but who are still his creatures, a law as clear and 
palpable as that which he has written in a book, and 
given to us his chosen people, commanding you not 
to make to yourself any graven image ; not to bow down 
to it, or worship it ; not to tolerate, much less to teach, 
the falsehoods, which your common people mix up 
with their notions of their God ? Has he not written 
it in your heart ? Does he not speak it to you in the 
voice of your own conscience? And will he not punish 
you for disobeying it, even though you profess to 
disobey it, just as the Roman Catholic Christians pro- 
fess, for the purpose of honouring God more; and deny 
that you worship the image, but only God under that 
sign or representation ? It is an unworthy and de- 
grading representation. And that is enough. 

I paused here, and we were both silent : at last he 
looked up and said, How then are we to convey to 
common minds a knowledge of that Divine Being, 
whS cannot be comprehended by the senses ? Must 
we not teach them religion ? And how can such minds 
be taught, except by forms, and symbols, and rites 
adapted to their imperfect capacities ? 

I know not, I said, what may be the maxims of 
ycur sacred books; but Jestts Christ, our Lord and 
master, has given us a law to think only of what God 

part i. c 



14 



IDOLATRY. 



[CHAP. I. 



commands, to ascertain -what he wishes, and then, 
whether we understand the end or not, to obey; sure 
that nothing can be wrong which is pleasing in his 
eyes. We have a command from Him not to depart 
from that representation of his nature which is true 
and prescribed; and for us this is enough. And yet if 
it were allowable to speculate, where our only duty is 
to obey, we might find out many reasons why this 
command should be given. 

B. I should like to hear them. 

C. I will give them to you briefly, if you will only 
remember that I do not produce them as the grounds 
of our practice. When I warn you to abstain from 
idolatry, I warn you as an ambassador from God 
charged to deliver you that law. If you will not obey 
the law, you are defying your Creator ; and if you 
follow it merely because in your own eyes it seems 
wise, and good, and expedient, you are not obeying 
God, but yourself. 

B. I will remember this. 

C. What then is your object in permitting the 
common people to indulge in a belief and a worship, 
which you yourselves acknowledge not to be true and 
perfect? Is it not to do them good ? 

B. Certainly. 

C. But to do them good, you must give them the 
knowledge of God. " This is life eternal," say our 
own holy books, " to know the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom he has sent." 1 And your own 
books say the same. What is your own object, and 
prayer, and the end of all your life, but to obtain' the 
knowledge of God ? 

B. It is true. 

C. And to know him as He is, not under signs and 
figures, not as imaged by our fallible senses, not 



1 John xvii. 3. 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



15 



as corporeal and mutable, but as pure, and perfect, 
and infinite, and immortal. 

B. It is so. 

C. And to obtain this knowledge you strive with all 
your efforts to free yourself from the trammels of the 
senses. In the words of your own sacred books, 
" The sage who is capable of discriminative know- 
ledge must refrain his mind from all the objects of 
sense, and therewith meditate upon the Supreme 
Being, who is one with spirit, in order to attain libe- 
ration he must apply himself to contemplative 
devotion 55 . . . "he must restrain his organs of sense 
from susceptibility to outward impressions, and direct 
them entirely to mental perceptions." 1 And, without 
this, you think that you cannot reach to happiness or 
perfection. And yet the common people, whose good 
you are bound to seek even more than your own, you 
not only permit, but encourage, to obscure their minds, 
and darken their knowledge, and deaden their devo- 
tion, and lose their happiness by thinking of God only 
as a being comprehended by our fallible senses, as 
confined under the fetters of form and matter, as 
corruptible like themselves. Are you really seeking 
their good, or rather are you seeking to preserve your 
own power over them, by confining true knowledge to 
yourselves, and excluding from it all others ? 

B. But all men are not capable of this knowledge, 
and we must address to them only what they are able 
to receive. 

C. It is true that all men have not the same powers. 
God has made the elephant and the ant; the king and 
the beggar ; the sage and the child. And we also 
know, as Christians, that He has dispensed his gifts 
differently to us his servants. " All flesh is not the 
same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, 



1 Vishnu Purana, chap, vii., p. 651. 

c 2 



16 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another 
of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies 
terrestrial ; but the glory of the celestial is one, and 
the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one 
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars, for one star differeth 
from another star in glory." 1 And all men are not 
capable of understanding the deep mysteries of know- 
ledge. But the knowledge that God is not many, but 
one; that he is not corruptible, but immortal ; that he 
is omniscient, almighty, all-holy, and all-good, and the 
maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible 
— this all men can be taught to repeat, and to under- 
stand, so far as is necessary to make them fear God, 
and love, and honour him. For all men bear written 
upon their hearts some intimations of such a being ; 
and even if any could not leceive it, it is our duty to 
set it before them. 

B. Why attempt what we cannot effect ? 

C. My friend, in all our works is it not God who 
works, and God who gives the increase? It is He 
who enlightens the heart of the sage, and He alone ; 
and without his blessing all human wisdom is a dream, 
and all human power is nothing. It is He who dis- 
tributes to every man knowledge as he wills; and 
man can only set truth before his fellow-creatures, de- 
livering it as a message from on high, and leaving it 
to the Spirit of God to graft it in the heart. It is 
God who discerns the soul, who alone knows who can 
receive and profit by the truth, and who will reject it. 
He is no respecter of persons. He has given to the 
poor as to the rich, to the Indian as to the European, 
to the Sudra as to the Brahmin, the mind to reason, 
and the heart to feel, and the desire for happiness, 
and the thirst for immortality, and a capacity for the 



1 1 Cor. xv. 39. 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



n 



knowledge of Himself. All men are alike before 
him, except as they do good or do evil. To all the 
same knowledge of their Creator is alike necessary, 
that he may be honoured by them, and they may be 
blessed by Him. And the man who would exclude from 
this knowledge any of his fellow- creatures, acts as if 
he possessed bread, or water, or a medicine to cure a 
deadly disorder, or a shelter from the fierce heat, and 
would admit no one to share it with himself, or only a 
chosen few, who would contribute to his own power. 

B. And yet the knowledge of God cannot be at- 
tained by the many. It requires deep meditation 
and abstraction, retirement from the world, and pro- 
foundest wisdom. 

C. No; not the knowledge which you exact. This 
cannot be attained by the many. For you have not 
received it from God, simply and intelligibly, and as 
adapted to the wants of all men ; but you have rea- 
soned it out by yourselves, by subtlety of argument 
and mysterious philosophy, and therefore none but 
philosophers can receive it. We bless God that it is 
not so with us ; and that God has given to us a 
creed which we can teach to the child, and of which the 
sage may be content to know no more than the child. 
And we think it one, among a thousand proofs that our 
knowledge came from God, that it is thus simple and ca- 
pable of universal diffusion. All men are his creatures 
— all therefore are embraced by his love ; and to all he 
gives in his bounty what is necessary for their subsist- 
ence, reserving only, as secret and as rare treasures, 
things which are not essential. Riches, and luxuries, 
and rare jewels, and wonderful prodigies, without which 
man can live and be happy, are confined to few places 
and few persons ; but air, and water, and daily food, and 
light to guide our path, and life to animate our bodies, 
and the sight, and taste, and touch, and hearing, and 
the beauty which he has poured upon nature, and the 

c 3 



18 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



love and support of our fellow-men, and knowledge to 
maintain our life 9 and faculties to discharge our ordi- 
nary duties — these, without which man perishes, are 
common to all, scattered round us with almost waste- 
ful profusion, laid at our feet, strewed in our path, 
forced into our hands, whether we will profit by them, 
or not ; and so with the knowledge of God. If it be 
not such as all may share in, think you whether it can 
come from God — whether it can be true ? 

B. And yet even Christians have found it necessary, 
as you have said, to allow the use of images, and to 
tolerate a popular worship more adapted to the ordinary 
capacities of man than the pure, abstract, and 
spiritualized creed, in which perfect truth is contained. 
You have said that this has been done by those who 
are called Roman Catholics, and they say of themselves 
that they are a very ancient, nay the original sect of 
Christians, and prevail over the greater part of 
Europe. 

C. We may be obliged perhaps hereafter to speak 
more of these Roman Catholics, whose pretensions 
may naturally perplex you. They have, I will not say 
found it, but thought it necessary to introduce these 
corruptions into the true worship of Christ. They 
thought it necessary, because they believed it their 
duty to govern and rule over men, instead of simply 
setting the truth before them, and leaving it to God 
to inspire and direct the heart. And they could not 
govern men without bringing them to a religious 
belief, and religious worship; and this they thought 
could not be made acceptable to them without address- 
ing itself to the eye and the other senses, and making it 
sensual for sensual beings. But we hold by God's 
commandment, and are content to obey this, whether 
our power over men be preserved or not. 

B. Do you then reject all appeals to the senses \ and 
though man is made up, as he is, both of body and spirit, 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



19 



and among the many of body prevailing over spirit, 
do you treat him as if made of spirit only ? 

C. God is a spirit, and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth. 1 But God 
has also given to us a body, and we allow so 
much of appeals to the senses as may not interfere 
with the worship of the spirit; and no more. We 
would bring men together at stated times into fixed 
places consecrated to God's service. We would 
celebrate that service in holy buildings, purified and 
fitted for it by all such means as He himself allows, 
to make them less unworthy of his presence, at least in 
the eyes. of men. We would raise up lofty roofs, that 
men's thoughts may be lifted up to heaven — offer 
for their glory and beaut v whatever work our best 
wisdom may devise, which God would not reject \ & 
not lavish our wealth and art upon our own palaces 
and our own homes, while the house of God is roofless 
or neglected. We would pour forth our praises in the 
best words which we can frame, to the sound of music, 
which may soothe our hearts and elevate our affections. 
We would set before the people men who are the 
ministers of God, bearing on them marks of honour, 
addressing mankind, not with words of human wisdom, 
but with the simple message of God's promises, and 
threats, and declarations, and commandments ; and yet 
we wish them also to be men whom others may love 
and honour, and see in them, wherever they move- — in 
the holiness of their lives, and the wisdom of their 
teaching — a far better image and shadow of that spirit 
of God which informs their hearts, than could be 
traced in a graven image. And we, too, have our 
ceremonies and rites — some that minister to edify- 
ing, and are necessary wherever human beings meet 
together to worship God — some that were ordained by 



1 John iv. 24. 



2 Exodus xxxv. 



20 



IDOLATRY. 



[CHAP. I. 



God himself, and which, simple and intelligible in their 
nature, we have preserved for 1800 years, as emblema- 
tic of the great mysteries of our religion, and, more 
than this, as means by which its greatest blessings are 
communicated to us according to the express promise 
of God. These are the means, by which we address 
ourselves to the senses of those who are not capable 
of abstract thought or deep philosophy ; and more 
than this we dare not do, lest we violate the command- 
ments of our Lord. We do this in our own country, 
and ought to do so in this country also ; and if we 
have not done it here, it is not because our religion 
neglects or prohibits it, but from other sad reasons, 
into which I need not enter. 

B. In the commandment which you repeated to me 
there was a word which I did not understand. You 
said that God was jealous, and that he punished the 
children for the sins of the fathers. How can this 
accord with your belief that God is one, everlasting, 
without body/parts, or passions, and of infinite power, 
and wisdom, and goodness ? 

C. We have not time to enter at present into such 
an inquiry ; but one thing you may understand — that 
whatever God declares of himself, is to be received by 
us without doubt or hesitation, even though it seems 
to us startling and difficult to be understood. And 
when God declares himself to be jealous, he declares 
that he feels and will act in some way, as we feel and 
will act, when our honour is profaned by false and un- 
worthy representations of our nature. Our holy books 
are full of instances of his wrath against idolaters ; not 
only against peculiar nations and men, whose history 
we know, and who were punished by him expressly 
for this sin, but generally on all mankind. " The 
wrath of God," says one of our sacred books, " is re- 
vealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unright- 
eousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness ; 



CHAP. I.] 



IDOLATRY. 



21 



(or, let me apply it to yourselves, of men who profess to 
know God truly, but do not make him known truly to 
the people beneath you.) And it declares the reason : 
ct Because that which may be known of God is mani- 
fest in them ; for God hath showed it unto them. 
For the invisible things of him from the creation of 
the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and 
godhead ; so that they are without excuse : because 
that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as 
God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their 
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened : 
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into 
an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, 

and four-footed beasts, and creeping things And 

even as they did not like to retain God in their know- 
ledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to 
do those things which are not convenient : being 
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wicked- 
ness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, mur- 
der, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, 
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of 
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understand- 
ing, covenant breakers, without natural affection, im- 
placable, unmerciful ; who, knowing the judgment 
of God, that they which commit such things are wor- 
thy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure 
in them that do them." 1 

My friend, such is the account given by God him- 
self of the end of those men who profess to know him 
as he is, and allow others to worship him as he is not. 
Whether among your own people there be signs of 
such an end I will not say. I am a stranger among 
you, willing to think well of all I see, and to believe 

1 Romans i. 18, 28. 



22 



IDOLATRY. 



[chap. I. 



of you all that is good. But I am a minister of God 
Almighty, charged, wherever I am, to deliver his mes- 
sage to men, commanding them to abstain from wor- 
shipping idols of wood and stone, and to turn to the 
living and true God, in whom only is salvation, and 
life, and righteousness, and peace, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Whether you worship such idols yourselves, 
or, being the teachers of the people, permit them with- 
out remonstrance to worship them — and whether the 
people themselves believe those idols really to partake 
of the divine nature, or regard them merely as signs 
and emblems of the pure and Almighty God, and as 
helps to aid their fancy in ascending to his inscrutable 
essence — in both cases the sin is committed of profan- 
ing the glory of God, and changing it into an image 
made after the fancy of corruptible man, — for if the 
image be supposed to bear no resemblance to God, it 
cannot help the imagination ; and if supposed to bear 
a resemblance, then it becomes a profanation. 

But the sun has risen high, and our conversation 
must close. 

Sir, he replied, I am grateful to you for it, and 
may it please God that we meet again. 

May God bless you and keep you, I replied, and 
bring you to the knowledge of his truth. And we se- 
parated to return to our homes. 



CHAP. II.] DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



23 



CHAPTER II. 

I was pleased the next morning to find the Brahmin 
at his usual seat; and still more at his joining me in 
my walk as soon as his devotions were finished. 

I have been thinking, Sir, he said, on some re- 
marks which you* made to me yesterday ; and would 
wish, if you will allow it, to ask you a few questions 
relating to them. And on my expressing the plea- 
sure which it gave me to communicate on these 
subjects with any one who was disposed to examine 
them with an humble and sincere heart, he proceeded. 

You spoke, Sir, very strongly yesterday of the 
duty of bringing all men to the knowledge of what 
you believe to be truth — that is, of Christianity. 
Hitherto we have not in this country been led to sup- 
pose that your nation and governors were sensible of 
such a duty. They seem rather to have thought that 
every one might safely be allowed to worship the God 
of their fathers after the dictates of their own con- 
science. Who are you, that you should adopt such a 
different view? 

I am, I replied, one of the ordained ministers and 
priests of Jesus Christ. You have in this country a 
body of Brahmins, who are recognised as the teachers 
and priests of the people, charged with preserving and 
studying your sacred books, and directing the rest of 
the nation in the way of life. And you have also 
another body, quite distinct from these, who are civil 
and temporal rulers, but may not interfere with the 
offices of the Brahmins. Your Brahmins become 
such by birth. The Christian Brahmins, if I may so 
speak, are chosen and appointed, or, to use our own 
expression, are <c ordained by the chiefs among them," 



24 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[CHAP. II. 



or our bishops, from all classes of life. Nothing is 
required of them but that they should be able and 
willing to give themselves up to the service of God, 
to teach his word, and administer his appointed or- 
dinances. And, besides these, in our own country we 
have kings and princes, and rulers of various kinds, 
who are supreme in all temporal concerns, and yet may 
not interfere with the spiritual offices of us, the clergy, 
or, if you would understand the word better, of us who 
in a Christian state fill a situation not wholly unlike 
that of Brahmins. And although our rulers and 
princes are Christians like ourselves, and are bound, 
like all other Christians, by the same laws as the 
clergy — of holiness and of obedience to God, and good 
will to man, and naturally look for advice and 
guidance to our teachers, when we teach what God 
puts into our mouths — yet you can well understand 
that sometimes they may feel less alive to the dis- 
charge of those duties, which are more especially 
enjoined on the clergy, and niay think more of pro- 
moting the wealth and peace and comfort of their 
people than of their religion. So it may have been 
with us; and yet this cannot alter the real duty, or 
exempt us, the clergy, from our responsibility to do 
what God has commanded us. 

Has God, then, given to you any express command 
to make all men Christians? 

Many such, I replied. These are the w^ords of 
Jesus Christ himself, who spoke only in the name of 
God : — " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature. 551 And again, " Go ye there- 
fore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
teaching them to, observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you. 552 And again, " Thus it is written, 
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise 
from the dead the third day ; and that repentance 
1 Mark xvi. 15. 2 Matt, xxviii. 19, 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OF CONVERSION, 



25 



and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are 
witnesses of these things." 1 These commands were 
given to the disciples of Jesus Christ more than 1800 
years back, when he was still upon earth ; and they ap- 
ply equally to us, who have received our commission at 
this day by regular succession from those who were 
first appointed by Christ to this office ; and therefore, 
when we are appointed to this office of priest, the 
bishop who ordains us solemnly charges us in these 
words, — as " Messengers, watchmen, and stewards of 
the Lord, to teach and to premonish, to feed and pro- 
vide for the Lord's family ; to seek for Christ's sheep 
that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who 
are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may 
be saved through Christ for ever." 2 And we are also 
solemnly enjoined, in the presence of Almighty God, 
" never to cease our labour, our care and diligence, 
until we have done all that lieth in us, according to our 
bounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall be com- 
mitted to our charge into that agreement in the faith 
and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and per- 
fectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left 
among us, either for error in religion or for vicious- 
ness in life." 3 And we also solemnly vow and pro- 
mise " to instruct the people committed to our charge 
out of the Holy Scriptures — " to teach them with 
all diligence to keep and observe the doctrines and 
sacraments, and discipline of Christ;" — "to be ready 
with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away 
all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's 
word, and to use both public and private monitions 
and exhortations as well to the sick as to the whole, 
as need shall require and occasion shall be given." 
And we vow also reverently to obey our chief minis- 
ters, unto whom is committed the charge and govern- 

1 Luke xxiv. 46. 2 Ordination Service. 

3 Ordination Service. 



26 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[CHAP. II. 



ment over us, following with a glad mind and will 
their godly admonitions, and submitting ourselves to 
their godly judgment. 1 

With these injunctions on our heads, and these 
vows on our lips, how can it he possible for us, the 
ministers of Christ, to disclaim the duty of preaching 
his word and truth to all nations ? 

B. I acknowledge what you say. 

C. And that we are bound to preach it under the 
direction and rule of our bishops, and to all men, 
wherever we are placed, you may learn also by the 
solemn prayer which our bishop uses before he lays 
his hands upon our heads, and so ordains us. Many 
of the prayers in your own sacred books are pure and 
good ; I will repeat to you one of ours, in which the 
bishop calls on all the congregation to join : — 

" Almighty God and heavenly Father, who of thine 
infinite love and goodness towards us hast given to us 
thy only and most dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ, 
to be our Redeemer, and the author of everlasting 
life, who after he had made perfect our redemption by 
his death, and was ascended into heaven, sent abroad 
into the world his apostles, prophets, evangelists, 
doctors, and pastors, by whose labour and ministry 
he gathered together a great flock in all the parts of 
the world, to set forth the eternal praise of thy holy 
name ; for these so great benefits of thy eternal good- 
ness, and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call these 
thy servants to the same office and ministry appointed 
for the salvation of mankind, we render unto thee 
most hearty thanks, we praise and worship thee ; and 
we humbly beseech thee, by the same thy blessed Son, 
to grant unto all which either here or elsewhere call 
upon thy holy name, that we may continue to show 
ourselves thankful unto thee for these and all other 
thy benefits ; and that we may daily increase and go 



1 Ordination Service. 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



2 7 



forward in the knowledge and faith of thee, and of 
thy Son, by the Holy Spirit. So that as well by these 
thy ministers, as by them over whom they shall be 
appointed thy ministers, thy holy name may be for 
ever glorified, and thy blessed kingdom enlarged, 
through the same thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 
who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the 
same Holy Spirit, world without end, Amen." 

B. There are tilings in this prayer which I do not 
of course understand; but there is nothing which 
seems not holy, and full of good will to man ; and I 
see that the increase of Christians is clearly contem- 
plated in it, and that it is your duty to preach to us 
what you believe to be the word of God, wherever you 
are placed. You agree then with the Mahommedans, 
who also think it their duty to extend their faith 
wherever they have the power. 

C. My friend : I agree, and all the faithful minis- 
ters of Christ must agree, that it is the duty of every 
man to spread throughout the world that faith which 
he believes to be most conducive to the honour of God 
and to the good of man. In this I agree with the 
Mahommedan. 

B. You would use then, as they did, all means — 
all the means, I repeat, within your reach, to make 
us Christians? 

C. I thank you for asking this question, for it 
enables me to say what ought to be said in the begin- 
ning of all such discussions. When the Mahom- 
medans conquered this country, they, like Christians, 
abhorred idolatry, and they destroyed your temples, 
overthrew your altars, plundered your shrines, and 
massacred your priests and people, in order to bring 
them, as they said, from error unto truth. And you 
think perhaps that we, the Christians of England, 
who earnestly desire your conversion, would practise 
the same means if the power were placed in our hands ? 

d 2 



28 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[chap. II. 



B. I do not see how, conscientiously, you could 
abstain from them, if you thought them conducive to 
your end. 

C. My friend, be assured that all such acts are 
hateful to God, and contrary to the true spirit of our 
holy religion. God, by his blessed Son Jesus Christ, 
has given to us his ministers but one commission — to 
preach his word — that is, to declare and witness by 
our lives and lips to the promises, threatenings, and 
laws which he has made known to man, and which 
we have received from the succession of ministers 
who have gone before us. More than this we are not 
to do. He has given to us no sword, or sceptre, to 
rule over your bodies, or to force you into obedience. 
He has commanded us to do good unto you — to be full 
of the spirit of peace and good will towards all men. 
These are his own holy words : " I say unto you, love 
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
them that hate you, and pray for them that despite- 
fully use you, and persecute you ; that ye may be the 
children of your Father which is in heaven ; for he 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 1 
With such a command laid on us, how can you think 
that Christian ministers could act as Mahommedans 
have acted, or insult, or mock, or injure you, even 
when they believe you to be walking in error ? 

B. The command is good. 

C. It is good ; and it is in itself sufficient to pre- 
vent us from recurring to any such means of conver- 
sion as violence and wrong. But there are still other 
reasons. Jesus Christ has not commanded us to 
receive into his church any but those who either 
come willingly and heartily into it themselves, or, as 
children who have no contrary will of their own, are 



] Matt. v. 44. 



CHAP, II.] DUTY OF CON-VERSION. 



brought into it heartily and willingly by their parents 
and guardians. It is not enough to honour God with 
our lips, while our heart is far from him. Rather we 
might expel from our communion as hypocrites and 
liars those who, from fear or covetousness, or any other 
motive but true faith and belief in Christ, profess to 
bear his name. Christ himself has declared, " Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in- 
to the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will 
of my Father which is in heaven." 1 And there- 
fore, even if it were possible by force to compel all 
the inhabitants of this great country to become Chris- 
tians by name, this would not make them Christians 
in heart, and w r ould not therefore extend the real 
kingdom of Christ. It would profane rather than 
honour it. 

B. What means, then, would you employ to bring 
us to your faith and religion ? 

C. I should wish that you all had the opportunity 
of hearing the word of God preached to you, if you 
were willing to listen ; that you could see everywhere 
before your eyes Christian ministers and Christian 
men, doing all which their God has commanded, and 
serving him not only with their lips but in their lives, 
that you may learn, better than you can either by books 
or words, what the religion of Christ really is. I would 
pray that you might have books written in your own 
language, to set before you the doctrines of our faith ; 
and especially our own holy books, which are inspired 
by God himself, and which all Christians are bound 
to study and abide by. And I would then desire that 
we all in our several capacities should strive to do you 
good; should abstain from injuring you in any way; 
should impart to you all the good knowledge that we 
possess ; should endeavour to lead you away from all 
wickedness, and enable you to live in peace and 

1 Matt. vii. 21. 

d 3 



30 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. [ciIAP. II. 



happiness one w T ith the other. I know no other way 
but this which is sanctioned by Almighty God, and 
which we as Christian ministers may employ to bring 
you to the knowledge of Christ; — no war, no bloodshed, 
no violence, no robbery, no insult, no reproach, no 
persecution. And if all these means should fail, and 
you should still harden your hearts, and turn away 
your ears, and continue to walk on in darkness, we 
should know that it was God's will; that, for some 
inscrutable reason, his providence had not thought fit 
to give you his Holy Spirit, and bring you to his 
marvellous light. And we should be obliged, though 
in sadness and sorrow, to continue our work as we 
might, and pray that the time, though delayed, might 
even yet come, when the veil would be taken from 
your heart, and we all might be brought together into 
one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Sir. said the Brahmin, after a pause, I cannot say 
that in these wishes there is anything to hurt or offend 
any one. And you would desire, of course, and think 
it right, that as you would act to us, we, who believe 
our own religion to be true, should act to you ? 

C Undoubtedly. And however earnestly each of 
us might wish to bring the other over to our own 
faith, if we steadily acted up to these principles, I 
think there would be nothing to promote ill will, or to 
cause enmity and malice.' 

B. Nothing. 

C. And this spirit of earnest desire for each other's 
conversion would be far better than if we professed 
ourselves indifferent as to the state of each other's 
souls, and the nature of our religion. For Almighty 
God is one and the same, unchanged and unchange- 
able, yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow : and therefore 
there can be but one true faith, which describes Him 
as He is ; and all others must be lies, and as lies must 
be hateful to him ; and those that preach lies he can- 
not love, and therefore will not bless; and without 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



31 



his blessing man cannot be happy ; and therefore 
even love to men would make us earnest in bringing 
them to the truth. If we care neither for God's glory 
nor for man's happiness, then indeed we may be in- 
different what they believe and what they teach ; but 
Christian ministers cannot be so, nor, I hope, would 
good Brahmins think differently from them. 

B. And yet may it not be that God will have mercy 
upon all men who serve him after the faith in which 
they conscientiously believe? Why must all mankind 
be of one creed and one religion, such as you would 
wish to see them ? 

C. My friend, if I have God's command to en- 
deavour to bring men all of them into one religion, it 
is enough for me, and for all his faithful ministers. 
But as before I showed you reasons, when the law 
itself was sufficient to point out our duty, so I will do 
now. 

B. I would willingly hear them, for no wise man 
acts without reason. 

C. No wise man indeed acts without reason ; but 
he may employ his reason better in ascertaining 
whether a law comes from God than whether it be 
good in itself. One is easier to find out than the 
other ; and when it is found out, nothing more can be 
necessary. But I will proceed. We confessed, then, 
before that Almightv God is one and unchangeable ? 

B. Yes. 

C. And therefore there can be but one true account 
of his nature, or one true creed ? 

B. Certainly. 

C. And all others must dishonour and be unworthy 
of him ; and offensive to him; for as God is all-perfect, 
they cannot describe him better than he is, and must 
therefore describe him worse, either adding something 
to his nature, or omitting something, and therefore 
being false and imperfect. 



32 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[chap. II. 



B. It must be so. 

C. And such creeds must be offensive to God ? 

B. Yes. 

C. And the persons who profess them ? 

B. I cannot deny it. And yet God may have com- 
passion upon them and forgive them, if their error is 
not wilful and obstinate 1 

C. Assuredly. God, we have reason to believe, 
will in his mercy judge all men according to their 
deeds, and to the opportunities which they have en- 
joyed. And we may hope that nations who have 
never heard of the name of Christ, and of the true re- 
ligion, will be pardoned by him, and that his blessing 
may not be wholly withdrawn from them, for Christ's 
sake. But when men have been warned of their 
errors, and have heard the voice of Christ's ministers 
declaring to them the faith, and have the means of 
learning the true nature of God, and of partaking in the 
especial mercies which he has promised to his faithful 
people — then, if they refuse to listen, and will continue 
in their errors, they can no longer have a right to rely 
on the mercy of God ; and the less so if they profess to 
be wise. There are nations of miserable savages, who 
have no books, no learning, no teachers, and who can 
scarcely judge between good and evil. But you pro- 
fess to be wise, and to teach the way of knowledge to 
others. How shall you escape, if you refuse the way 
of salvation? " If ye were blind," said Jesus Christ 
to men like unto you, " ye should have no sin ; but 
now ye^say, We see; therefore your sin reraaineth." 1 

B. And yet how difficult it is to bring men to agree 
in one religion ! 

C. It is difficult, perhaps impossible ; certainly 
impossible for man. And yet there are many things 
difficult, and even impossible, which nevertheless we 



1 John ix. 41. 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY* OF CONVERSION. 



33 



are bound to attempt. We cannot make all men good ; 
and yet we ought not to be content with any effort 
short of this object. We cannot make all men wise ; 
and yet we try to give them all the knowledge in 
our power. We cannot make them happy ; yet the 
best men of every age and every faith have spent 
their lives in endeavouring to promote the happiness 
of their fellow-creatures. We cannot make ourselves 
perfect ; and yet your own religion teaches you to aim 
at perfection ; and so does that of Christ, who bids 
us, " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in 
heaven is perfect." 1 Yet how can man make himself 
equal to God ? No, my friend ; man has only to do 
what God commands ; and Gcd has commanded us 
to set his truth before all mankind, that all mankind, 
if they like, may hear and receive it. That all will 
not listen we well know, and that there w T ill be dis- 
sensions and divisions among Christians as well as 
among heathens ; but this is not to prevent us from 
endeavouring to unite them all together. When We 
have done this, our task is finished ; and God, who 
governs all things, and Ct alone can order the unruly 
w r ills and affections of sinful men," will provide for 
the rest. 

B. And yet have not these attempts to bring the 
world into one faith generally led to wars, and per- 
secutions, and hatred ; whereas it is our duty to pro- 
mote peace and good will among all men ? Should 
we not be more united and more friendly, if every one 
w r as allowed quietly to serve God according to his con- 
science, and no one presumed to interfere with him? 

C. This I know is the language which you fre- 
quently hear in these days, and it is easy to collect 
instances where religion has been made the pretext 
for war and cruelty ; and to recommend the promotion 
of mutual charity by obliterating distinctions of creeds. 
But w r e have no permission from our Lord and 

1 Matthew v. 48. 



34 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[chap. II. 



Master, who is God himself, to have recourse to any- 
such means of promoting what is called peace. He 
has commanded us to set the truth, and the whole 
truth, before all men, and to endeavour to bring them 
into his holy church. And I have said again and 
again, and cannot repeat too often, this command is 
sufficient for us, whatever effect it may seem to us 
ignorant beings to produce. We cannot judge God. 
And yet, again, is not this talk of peace a mere de- 
lusion? Consider for a moment. What do you 
mean by religion ? 

B. It is the knowledge, and love, and fear of God, 
and a hearty desire to be united with him. 

C. It is so. And it is a powerful feeling, making 
men active in discharge of their duties to God, zealous 
for his honour, constantly attentive to his laws, medi- 
tating and speaking on his perfections ; and al- 
lowing nothing to interfere with this, as their first and 
chief work upon earth. 

B. I cannot deny it. 

C. If then a man be religious — truly and heartily 
religious — he must wish that the name of God should 
be honoured everywhere, that other men should serve 
God as well and in the same manner as himself ; for 
we are not content with loving by ourselves those 
whom we love, but we wish and endeavour that others 
should love them likewise. And he cannot exclude 
religion from any of his acts or occupations, for it 
ought to fill his whole heart and mind — to be present 
with him at every time and every spot, as God him- 
self fills all eternity and all place. He cannot pre- 
vent himself from speaking of it at every fit opportu- 
nity. And when the sins of others make this unfit, 
and he is obliged to "keep silence even from good 
words," then, as our sacred books say, it will be " pain 
and grief to him ?' 3 1 

B. It is so. 

1 Psalm xxxix. 3. 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OV CONVERSION. 



35 



C. And unless a man is religious in this way, and 
to this extent, it is very little ? 

B. Very little. 

C. And without a true, hearty religion man cannot 
be perfect nor happy ? 

B. Certainly not. 

C. Will you then recommend that we should be 
content with a false and imperfect religion, which is 
scarcely religion at all, a religion of mere words and 
forms, without any affection of the heart? This would 
be to fall back into the follies of that popular belief 
which your wise men so often condemn ? 

B. I would not. 

C. We must then be truly religious ? 

B. Assuredly. 

C. And all men who profess religion, of whatever 
creed, ought to profess it zealously and fervently ? 

B. I allow it. 

C. They must then be desirous of converting those 
who differ from them ; they must speak warmly and 
earnestly, as those who firmly believe, and act up to 
their belief. And when they meet together (such is 
the infirmity of human nature), their zeal at times may 
degenerate into anger; and yet even this maybe better 
than to have no zeal at all, and no religion— which is 
the only other alternative. Among Europeans to re- 
sent a blow or an insult often leads to quarrels, some- 
times to murder ; and yet a man who does not resent 
it they consider as disgraced. They wish men to 
guard their own honour, though at the expense of 
blood. But if, in an attempt to guard the honour of 
their God, they use even a hasty word which gives of- 
fence, they are stigmatized as bigots. Is not this 
strange ? 

B. It is somewhat inconsistent. 

C. And if a soldier heard the name of his king in- 
sulted, or any injurious thing said of him, or any refu- 



36 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[CHAP. II. 



sal to serve him, he would be bound to take notice of it, 
and to consider it as an insult to himself, and avenge 
it, according to what are called the laws of honour, by 
a battle. Bat if we, who are soldiers of Christ, 
owning him as our Lord and Master, and bound by a 
solemn vow 7 to promote his glory — if we even rebuke 
those who deny his existence, or blaspheme his name, 
we are condemned as arrogant and uncharitable. Is 
it not so? 

B. It is. 

C. And again if the plague w T ere raging round us, 
and I was able, or thought I was able, to rescue any of 
the victims, or to warn others against the infection, 
though I might be compelled in doing this to use 
harsh language, or to employ some painful remedy, 

-or to cause much ill-will at the time, no one w^ould 
reproach me, but say that I was doing my duty ; and 
ultimately would be grateful. And if, rather than 
give offence or risk unpopularity, I abstained from 
saving them, who would not condemn me as foolish 
and hard-hearted ? And yet w r e may not endeavour 
to save our fellow- creatures, whom we are bound to 
love and serve, from the worst and most fatal of all 
plagues, ignorance of the true God, and therefore ex- 
posure to his wrath, without being held up to scorn 
and reprobation. Is it not so ? 

B. It is. 

C. Let us therefore, my friend, not be afraid of these 
idle and w T icked words, which none will utter but those 
who know not what religion is, or care not for their 
God. Let us indeed pray and strive earnestly that, 
with all our zeal for God's glory, we may not forget 
what he has expressly enjoined on us— -love and good 
will to man. But it is no love to man to forget God's 
glory, or to indulge human weaknesses instead of pro- 
testing boldly against their errors. And let us all 
strive earnestly and heartily, each of us in the faith 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



37 



which we profess, to bring all others to the knowledge 
of it, as we pray in our own holy worship, that " all 
may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in 
unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteous- 
ness of life." 1 And let us not be deterred from this 
duty by stories of wars and dissensions, which men 
have falsely called religious. They have proceeded, 
not from religion, but from men's vices, their ambition, 
their love of money, their malice, or their ignorance 
of true religion. You conscientiously and honestly 
believe in your creed and your sacred books, and I 
believe in mine. One of us must be in error, and for 
that error we shall each be responsible ; but so long as 
we each believe that we are in the truth, let us each 
endeavour to bring others to it likewise. And instead 
of hating each other for this zeal, we shall honour and 
love each other more, and be bound together far more 
closely, and be able to act together far better (where 
it is allowable) in the ordinary duties of life, as 
men who are assured of each other's integrity and 
honesty, and that we speak openly what we believe, 
and act on what we speak, and really desire each 
other's good, and really wish to sympathize and agree 
in all things, and especially in the greatest of all 
things; and that we truly are living with the fear of 
God before our eyes, and his law in our hearts, and 
acknowledge Him as our ruler and our judge ; and are 
seeking for truth, and wishing to abide by it, and are 
preferring truth, and God's glory, and the real good 
and happiness of man, to mere human opinion, or our 
own ease and comfort, or even popularity with the 
world, which is rarely to be attained or preserved 
without a sacrifice of duty. Be assured this is a far 
better ground for mutual love and charity, and for the 
peace and union of society, than any hollow profession of 

1 Common Prayer. 
PART I. K 



38 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. [CHAP. II. 



what is called toleration or indifference. As if any man 
had a right to be indifferent to the evil of others, or to 
sit by inactive and in silence, while his deeds or his 
words might save them from their unhappy condition. 

B. And yet I do not see clearly the necessity and 
use of our all professing one and the same system of 
religious opinions. 

C. My friend, let me remind you again, that if a 
law comes from God, this is enough for us to know. It 
little becomes man to scrutinize, and examine it, and 
suspend his obedience until he understands its use. 
Is it not faithlessness and impiety, and a doubt if 
Almighty God be all-wise also ? 

B. And yet if I am not sure that the command comes 
from God, I may suspend my belief until I see its 
value. 

C. If the command be contrary to one that you 
know before to have proceeded from God, you may 
indeed suspend your belief, and even reject the com- 
mand at once ; for God cannot command contradic- 
tions. But if it be merely something which you did 
not see before, some additional law, explanatory or 
confirmatory of those which you had already received, 
may it not be that even without demonstration that it 
comes from God — even on the mere possibility that it 
may come from him — you would be bound at once to 
obey it ? For those whom we really love and honour 
we try to anticipate in their wishes — to guess at what 
they like. We catch at even hints and intimations. 
We do not sit by, inactive and reluctant until the 
wish or command be so clearly expressed that no one 
can mistake it. He who loves truly can read thoughts 
in looks, and snatches at the expression of a desire from 
a single w T ord, from a tone of voice, from an acci- 
dental gesture, and delights to collect and discover 
every little sign which may point out to him the path, 
in which his master or his king would have him walk, 



CHAP. II.] 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



39 



without waiting for demonstrative proof. Even so we 
should act in obeying the commands of which we 
may only know that they may have come from God, 
because it is so declared by others, and that they con- 
tain nothing contrary to laws which we know to be 
from God. 

B. But is there not a law in our own heart contrary 
to this law of your religion that you should bring all 
men into one faith ? Is not every one the master of 
his own mind, and responsible for his own opinions 
to Him alone who can see the heart ? 

C. You speak of what men call the rights of con- 
science, and in this day, in our own country, we hear 
much of these ; and you, the more you become fa- 
miliar with our books and our people (and this know- 
ledge seems to me spreading more and more in India), 
will hear more of them likewise. And if you are per- 
suaded to adopt the same view of them which is 
popular with us, there will be little hope of bringing 
you to the knowledge of God. For each man will 
stand sentinel, as it were, at the door of his heart, 
looking on every word of advice, or warning, or in- 
formation as a trespass on his privacy and property — 
and rejecting even that which he would acknowledge to 
be true, because it comes from a fellow-man who, they 
think, has no right to interfere with his opinions. 
But it would take us a long time to examine this 
question, and I should be obliged to say many things 
which others would contradict, and think harsh per- 
haps, and uncharitable; and unless we speak out freel 
and fully, there is danger of spreading errors on such 
a subject : I would therefore rather say nothing to 
you than say it hastily and without your attending. 
And probably you are weary of our conversation. 

B. No, Sir, indeed, I am not weary, and would 
willingly enter into this question fully, if you have 
time : for I have heard and read much in favour of 

e 2 



40 



DUTY OF CONVERSION. 



[CHAP. II. 



the objection which I made just now ; and it seems 
to me to have great weight, and that it must be re- 
moved before I could reasonably give myself up to 
the instructions of any man. 

B. Shall w r e then meet to-morrow T morning, and 
resume our conversation together ? 

C. Most willingly, Sir. 

And after the usual compliments we separated, 
and returned home. 



CHAP. III. 



THE CREEI>« 



41 



CHAPTER III. 

The next morning I readied the place of our meeting 
later than usual. The Gooroo had finished his devo- 
tions, and was sitting under a tree with another 
European, dressed in black, and whom I recognised, 
on approaching him, as one of the principal mis- 
sionaries who had been sent out to Calcutta by a 
dissenting body. He was an humble, earnest-minded, 
devoted man, anxious for the salvation of his fellow- 
creatures, and willing to risk his life for the love of 
bis Master ; and his chief defect was want of in- 
formation on those parts of ecclesiastical history, 
which would otherwise have brought him to the com- 
munion of the Church, by showing him the sin and 
the dangers of schism. Much as I dreaded the 
effect of exhibiting before the eyes of Hindoos the 
unhappy dissensions of Christians, and reprobated the 
principles which had given rise to them, I could not 
but respect, and almost feel an affection for this 
simple-minded and pious man. 

The Brahmin apologized for having brought him to 
take part in our conversation. 

Before, Sir, he said, I had the happiness of 
meeting with you, this good man had often conversed 
with me on the same subject as yourself, and endea- 
voured to induce me to become a Christian, and join 
his own communion. But when I repeated to him 
what had passed between us, and asked him how T I 
was to distinguish or choose between his view of 
Christianity and yours, he expressed himself in a way, 
which has rather had the effect of making me resolve 

e 3 



42 



THE CREED. 



[chap. III. 



* to hold fast by my own faith, without inquiring any 
further into a subject, in which, the more I search, 
the more doubt and difference I find. I would, how- 
ever, willingly hear you together explaining your opi- 
nions, that T may not judge hastily or rashly. 

My friend, I replied, P can rarely be sorry to 
speak on such subjects with those who, professing 
to be Christians like myself, yet differ from me in their 
view of Christianity, any more than I am reluctant to 
argue with you \vho, believing as I do in one 
Almighty God, do not believe in Him, whom He has 
sent, his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. With men, 
indeed, who care nothing in their hearts for religion, 
and who only quarrel about its doctrines while they 
neglect its commands, or make it a mere pretext for 
worldly and selfish pursuits, it is painful and useless 
to speak of it; but such I would willingly belieye is 
not the case with either of you. And you have a 
right to ask me for some explanation of one of the 
greatest difficulties which must perplex a Heathen 
when Christians come to him and endeavour to bring 
him to Christianity, but without agreeing in their 
statement of what Christianity is. You will be exposed 
to this perplexity in this country more and more every 
day; and it will meet you in the very first opening 
of the question ; and if anything could make us feel 
bitterly and sadly the evils of our present dissensions, 
and the punishment which God inflicts upon us for 
them, it is the sight of the contempt and disbelief, with 
which our message from God is listened to by you, 
his creatures ; because those who profess to be his 
messengers to you, and his servants, instead of being 
joined together in one faith, and one heart, and one 
body, even glory in the name of dissension. 

Sir, said the Missionary, I trust we do not 
differ so much as you would lead the Brahmin to 
suppose. We are both Christians, and all who 



CHAP. III.] 



THE CREED. 



43 



■ 

believe the Gospel of Christ, and love and serve him, 
are, we hope, united in one fellowship with him, 
however we may differ on some points of doctrine, or 
of mere outward discipline. Faith in Christ is all 
that is necessary to salvation, and this is all that we 
should both of us require from our heathen converts. 

You are not then, I replied, one of those who make 
light of disunion among Christians. You remember 
the last prayer of our Lord before he was delivered up 
to be crucified : " Neither pray I for these alone, but 
for them also which shall believe on me through their 
word ; that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee, that they also maybe one in us : 
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 1 
And you remember that he laid down his life for his 
sheep, that they might all be brought to hear his voice, 
and ' ,% be one fold under one shepherd." 2 And you 
acknowledge that all Christians should be what Christ's 
Apostle St. Paul describes them to be, like the body 
of a man: "for as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one body, being 
many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For by one 
spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we 
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; 
and have been all made to drink into one spirit 
. . . .that there should be no schism in the body, but 
that the members should have the same care one for 
another. And whether one member suffer, all the 
members suffer with it ; or one member be honoured, 
all the members rejoice with it." 3 And though you 
do not conform to the prayers of our Church, you 
will not object to my reading one of them, which will 
show the Brahmin how earnestly we, the ordained 
ministers of the Church of England, are commanded 
to pray and strive that Christians may be one with 
each other, and that no such thing as dissension, by 



John xvii. 20. 2 John x. 16. 3 1 Cor, 12. 



44 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. III. 



which name it is grievous that you should call your- 
selves, should be known among us. 

" O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our 
only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; give us grace 
seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in 
by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and 
prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from 
godly union and concord ; that as there is but one 
Body, and one Spirit, and one Hope of our calling, 
one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and 
Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one 
heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond 
of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity, and may 
with one mind and one mouth glorify thee, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 1 

Is there, I asked, in this prayer anything to which 
you cannot assent ? 

Certainly not, said the Missionary. It is the prayer 
of my own heart, and ought to be the prayer of all 
w T ho love their Lord. 

And yet, I continued, are we, as Christians, one ; 
or are we torn with unhappy divisions, differing in 
the doctrines which we receive, refusing to obey the 
same ruler; one party setting up one society, and 
another, another ; charging each other with mutual 
faults, and endeavouring too often to supplant each 
other in obtaining power ; and, that which ought to 
be the last thought of Christians, temporal and poli- 
tical power ? And while this is the case, can we 
wonder, that when we stand before heathen nations, 
as yourself and I are now standing-before this good 
Brahmin, each of us professing to be the messenger of 
God to him, yet neither agreeing in our messages nor 
acknowledging each other's commission, they the 
heathen should turn away, as this Brahmin is disposed 
to do, in perplexity, if not in contempt, and should 



1 Form of Prayer for the 29th of January. 



CHAP. III.] 



THE CREED. 



45 



refuse to believe either that we are sent by Christ, or 
that Christ was sent by God? Is it not our Lord's 
own prophecy, that, when his followers differ, men will 
not receive their persons, or believe their message ? 
And who are to blame for this grievous sin ? 

Sir, he said, the Brahmin cannot reasonably object 
that our religion is not true because we are divided 
in opinion on it ; for Hindoos likewise are divided 
into many sects and parties. If Christians have 
fallen from their belief, so have the Buddhists 
and the Jains. If Christians, acknowledging Christ, 
nave yet differed as to their notions of the Divine 
Being, so have 1 the Saivas, who contend for the 
attributes of Siva, and the Yaishnavas who adore 
Vishnu, and the Ganapatyas who adore Ganesa, and 
the Sactas : and these again have subdivided them- 
selves into numberless sects. No fewer than three 
hundred and thirty-nine branches of heresy and schism 
are counted up. And if they complain of us that we 
differ in our interpretation of our scriptures, so also 
we are told of the Vedas, that " in the progress of 
successive instruction so great variations crept into 
the text, or into the maimer of reading and- reciting 
it, and into the no less sacred precepts for its use and 
application, that 1100 different schools of scriptural 
knowledge arose." 2 It may be hard for Europeans to 
understand the exact nature of all those sects and 
schisms, but is it not the fact that they exist ? 

The Brahmin did not deny it. 

And I fear, I added, that with you, as with us, 
there have been wars and persecutions, massacres 
and banishments, by which one sect has endeavoured 
to avenge itself on its opponents, or to gain power over 
them ; as if the priests of God and ministers of truth 
could by this way do him service, 

The Brahmin was silent. 
1 Asiat. Researches, Sup. 2 Ibid. vol. viii. p. 382. 



46 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. III. 



And yet, I said, addressing myself to the Missionary, 
it is but a poor thing to silence a charge against 
ourselves by retorting it, however justly, upon 
others ; and that the worshippers of Vishnu and 
Brahma have lost their unity of doctrine and worship, 
or have treated each other cruelly, is no parallel to 
the same calamity and the same crime among the 
worshippers of Christ. Have they we may well ask 
ourselves, such guarantees to the doctrines which they 
have differed from, as God has given to us, or any 
such injunctions to preserve love and brotherly kind- 
ness, and to do good unto all men, as we have ? 
Rather, if we must come before them with the marks 
of dissension upon us, let us do so with shame, and 
sorrow, and self-reproach ; and prayer, that our wounds 
may be healed, and the Church once more gather 
her lost children together in one fold, and all pro- 
claim the truth to the world with one tongue and one 
heart. 

Alas, Sir, said the Brahmin, how T can you hope that 
this should ever be the case? If I understand right 
what has been told me by this missionary, all the 
doctrines of your religion are contained in a large 
book — and this book is to be placed before every 
individual, and each individual is to read it by him- 
self, and to form from it his own opinions. If this be 
so, how can you expect that all who read shall arrive 
at the same conclusion ? 

I said nothing ; but the Missionary replied that the 
book was easy and intelligible, and no one could 
mistake it. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, many do mistake it, by 
the statement which I have just heard ; for Christians, 
who all profess to read this book, do differ greatly in 
their doctrines. There was one Christian Gooroo 
here who wished me to believe that Jesus Christ, 
whom you worship, w r as not God, or like to God, but 



CHAP. III. J 



THE CREED. 



47 



only a mere man like himself ; and you declare that 
He is God ; and yet both of you appeal and send me 
for information to the same book; and if one of you 
is not a blasphemer, the other must be an idolater ; 
and you both tell me that there are certain things 
necessary for me to believe in order to be saved. 
What are these things? 

You must believe, said the Missionary, in Jesus 
Christ. 

Do you also agree in this ? said the Brahmin, turning 
to me. 

From my heart, I replied. 

And that he is your Saviour and Redeemer, con- 
tinued the Missionary ; that he died upon the cross to 
wipe out your sins ; that he is the Lord your God, 
to be worshipped, and prayed to, and blessed for all 
your blessings : and that it is through Him only, by 
the gift of his Holy Spirit, that you can be reconciled 
to God your Father, and brought to everlasting life. 

And is this, asked the Brahmin of me again, your 
belief also ? 

Most assuredly. I said. 

And these are the doctrines, he asked of the Mis- 
sionary, contained in your sacred books ? 
M. They are. 

B. Are they all that is contained in them ? 

M. No ; there is also an outline of the history of 
the creation of the world, and an account of the 
history of one nation, the Jews, whom God selected as 
his chosen people, to be the depository of the knowledge 
of Him, the one true God. And there are also 
hymns, and moral teaching, and prophecies, and 
laws, and four accounts of things which Christ did and 
said when he was upon the earth, and of things done 
and said by his disciples immediately after he was 
ascended into heaven ; and letters written by those 
disciples to the societies they established ; and a 



48 



THE CREED. 



[chap. III. 



prophecy of what would happen to them afterwards. 
The Bible is a large book, containing an account of 
many things, or rather it is a collection of many small 
books written at different times, on various subjects, 
by various persons. 

B. And must I believe all that is here told me ? said 
the Brahmin. 

M. Certainly, for it all comes from God. 

B. And if I doubted whether one particular chapter 
or verse were an interpolation, or were not inspired, 
or disputed some one particular fact, which perhaps 
was of no importance, and not meant to be insisted on, 
or expressed ambiguously, should I be excluded from 
salvation ? 

M. No, said the Missionary, for there are certain 
parts of the Bible of which we ourselves do not 
profess to be perfectly sure that they came from the 
prophets or apostles of God ; one or two verses of 
which the best Christians have doubted whether they 
be genuine ; many things which seem to be stated 
literally, but may perhaps be intended to be taken 
figuratively, as in the prophecies. 

B. And if I were blind or deaf, or could not read 
your language, or had no translation of your Bible, 
could I then be saved in any way? 

M . Certainly, if you were willing to receive the 
doctrines which Christ has commanded us to preach 
to you. 

B. It is not then a belief in the Bible, but a belief 
in certain doctrines, which you hold to be necessary 
to salvation ? 

M. It is so. 

B. And those doctrines are not the only things 
contained in the Bible, but a part of the things ? 
M . It is so. 

B. I suppose, then, these doctrines, which we must 
all, as you say, believe, and the exact number of them, 



CHAP. III.] 



THE CREED. 



49 



are all pointed out in the Bible ; for if some part of 
the Bible, or the true meaning of some part, may be 
doubled without risking salvation, and others may 
nut, surely there is some mark set upon them, that 
there may be no possibility of mistake. 

You are not unreasonable, I said, in your 
demand. It is surely probable that God would 
not send a message to mankind, on the reception of 
which depended our eternal life, without putting it 
into some definite form. 

B. I must ask you then, he said to me, for this 
form before I can know what I am to believe, or what 
you profess as Christians. In what part of the 
Bible is it to be found ? 

I would rather, I replied, that you should ask the 
Missionary ; for his view of the revelation of God 
differs from that which my Church teaches, and I 
would wish to hear his answer as well as yourself. 

M. I have told you that belief in Christ is necessary 
to salvation, and I mentioned also certain doctrines 
which are likewise essential, and which are found 
in the Bible. 

B. Will you tell me their exact number, and 
point out the page of your Bible where they are spe- 
cified, that I may read thern for myself? • 

The Missionary seemed perplexed — he began to 
count upon his fingers, and to turn over the leaves of 
his Bible which he had taken from his pocket ; but 
at last he was obliged to state that he had mentioned 
the principal doctrines, and that on reading the 
Scriptures carefully, every one would perceive them. 

The Brahmin shook his head. jNTot every one, he 
replied, my friend, for I have known many of your 
countrymen, calling themselves Christians, who, like 
yourself, wished me to believe the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, and, like yourself, appealed to the Bible, but yet 
gave me a different account of the doctrines which I 

PART I. F 



50 



THE CREED. 



must admit in order to be saved ; leaving out some 
of yours, and putting in others; and they never 
could point out to me in their Bibles the form and 
list which I required, or could suggest to me any other 
mode of distinguishing the essential doctrines from 
those which they allowed to be non-essential, except 
by each man's private reason and private feeling. 
And when I asked if these in every human being 
were uncorrupted and infallible guides, they told me 
no ; that we were depraved in our natures, and blind 
in our understanding, and corrupt in our affections 
from our youth up. How then, I ask you, am I to 
discern the truths of God without some other help 
than my own eyes to read, and my own reason to 
judge them ? 

And once more shaking his head, and with a little 
smile upon his lips, he was about to take his leave. 

Stop, I said, my friend : you have asked the Mis- 
sionary to give you an accurate, definite account of 
those doctrines which he calls on you to receive as 
necessary to salvation, and he has told you they 
are found in the Bible, in which I cordially agree 
with him ; but he has not been able to state clearly 
wmere, nor to enumerate them upon any other autho- 
rity than his own sense of their comparative import- 
ance. In that sense of their importance I also agree 
with him. But I can also enumerate them accurately 
in a form not collected or drawn up by myself, but 
which I received from my Church. Do you wish to 
hear it ? 

Willingly, said the Brahmin. 

I will repeat then to you, I said, the Belief of the 
Christian, without receiving which, I, as an appointed 
messenger of God, announce to you that you cannot be 
saved. It is the body of truth revealed to us by God, 
and by God commanded to be laid before you through 
us his servants. It is as follows : — 



CHAP. III.] 



THE CREED. 



51 



" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ his only Son, 
our Lord ; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born 
of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, dead, and buried : He descended into 
hell ; the third day He rose again from the dead : He 
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand 
of God the Father Almighty ; from thence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the 
Holy Ghost ; the holy Catholic Church ; the Commu- 
nion of Saints; the Forgiveness of Sins ; the Resur- 
rection of the Bod)', and the Life everlasting. Amen." 

Is this, I ask, a short, clear, and definite enumera- 
tion ? 

I do not say that I understand it, said the Brahmin, 
but it certainly answers to what I required in being 
definite and explicit. And may I ask what the Mis- 
sionary thinks of it ? 

M. There are no Christians, he replied, or scarcely 
any, who do not allow this form or creed to be an 
admirable summary of Christian doctrine ; but I con- 
fess, like many others, I dread the use of formularies 
like these, as shackling the freedom of our minds ; 
and because they tend to substitute human opinions 
for divine revelation, and to diminish our reverence 
for the pure word of God as contained in the Scriptures. 

C. And yet, I replied, it is evident that you cannot 
avoid the use of some formularies or others. If you 
call on men to believe, you must tell them what to 
believe. And you do make use of a formulary, only 
one much more large, more vague, and more shackling 
to the mind than the creed which I repeated ; for you 
take the whole Bible : and yet, as I said before, not the 
whole, but only that part which you think most im- 
portant, and absolutely necessary ; and when you are 
asked which part that is, you either cannot point it 
out accurately, or you draw a line of your own choice, 

f2 



52 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. III. 



leaving every one else full liberty to draw theirs — and 
thus in effect drawing none at all. You will not be 
offended if I speak openly, but is not this the fact? 

ikf. Is it not sufficient, sir, if we call on men to 
believe in Christ, and to put their whole trust in him, 
and to love and obey him, without entering into so 
many minute theological opinions, on which the best 
of Christians have so often differed ? 

C. This is a question which can be answered pro- 
perly only by another, What has God commanded us 
to do ? Has He enjoined on us to profess and to insist 
on the reception of these 'theological doctrines (I do 
not call them opinions, for that would concede the very 
point in dispute), or does He allow them to be thrown 
aside as uncertain and valueless? But without yet 
replying to this, I answer, that even if you wish to 
content yourself with exacting, as the terms of Christian 
communion, faith in Christ, meaning by faith merely 
a feeling and disposition of the heart, you cannot ask 
for this without basing it on some peculiar doctrines. 
Ask the Brahmin to love Christ, and he will ask who 
Christ is — what is his nature — what kind of love he 
himself must feel ? For if Christ be man, it will be one 
kind and degree; and if he be God, another. He will 
desire to know what Christ has done for him — and 
you must tell him of his coming in the flesh, and sub- 
mitting to be crucified for our sins — and what he 
will do for us — -and you must speak of the resurrection 
of the dead, and the life everlasting, and of that which 
precedes both these, the gift of his Holy Spirit. And 
when he asks who that Holy Spirit is, you must 
explain whether He be a person, and that person God, 
to be worshipped ; or a mere gift and blessing, to be 
received as we receive health, or life, or any other com- 
fort. And thus you will be forced to place a creed be- 
fore him, something for his intellect to embrace, before 
his heart can be properly awakened. 

Is it not so ? I asked the Brahmin. 



CHAP. III.] 



TEE CREED. 



53 



Assuredly, he replied. There can be no love of 
God without the knowledge of Him as he is. 

But what right have you, said the Missionary, to 
assert that the particular creed which you recited is 
necessary to salvation ? Is it not human, while the 
Scriptures are divine? 

Whether the Apostles' Creed, I answered, be human 
in the sense in which you probably use the word, is a 
question which may be considered hereafter ; but 
when I assert that the reception of it is necessary to 
salvation, I do so as the minister of a church which 
requires the profession of it at baptism ; and without it 
will not admit any one to be made, by her instrumen- 
tality, " members of Christ, children of God, and 
inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven" — will rather feel 
compelled to leave them, as they naturally are, " born 
in sin, and the children of wrath." 1 And if you ask 
why she has imposed this condition, it is upon the 
authority of the Church from the earliest ages, and 
because she has the evidence of ancient Catholic prac- 
tice, that in so doing she is conforming to the appoint- 
ment of Christ himself, evidenced by the appointment 
of his apostles. 

I observe, said the Brahmin to me, one difference, 
on which you laid great stress, between the mode 
in which you propose to me your faith, and that in 
which it has been placed before me by my friend 
here, and by many others who have endeavoured to 
convince me of its truth. You rest everything on the 
positive commands of God, on authority 7 , on distinct 
injunctions from persons placed over you. They tell 
me wriat they believe themselves, what they think to 
be true, what they feel, and are convinced of by their 
own understanding. And if they rest their belief on 
their own private judgment, I also must rest upon 
mine ; and thus each of us will claim a right, which no 
1 Church Catechism. 

F 3 



54 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. Ill* 



one can then dispute, to form his own faith ; and there 
will be no means of judging which is true, and which 
false. This it is which perplexed me when I spoke 
of what you called " the right of conscience and I 
observe that you do not allow it in the same sense in 
which the words are used by those Christians who call 
themselves Dissenters. 

Certainly not, I replied. If by right of conscience is 
meant that no human being has a right to torture or 
persecute another, because he does not hold the same 
religious faith with himself — if it means that inputting 
the truth before others, w r e must confine ourselves to 
witnessing to what we believe ourselves, and to the use 
of reason, and argument, and example, for the purpose 
of conviction — if it means that God alone can know the 
secrets of the heart, and that so long as thoughts are 
confined within our own breasts they can scarcely be 
made amenable to any earthly tribunal — then indeed I 
do firmly believe in and admit " the right of consci- 
ence," and will maintain it to the utmost of my power. 
But the phrase is too often used to denote something' 
very different, and which I cannot find to be sanctioned 
by either God's revealed Word, or by our natural rea- 
son, which we have equally received from God. It is 
taken by too many to mean that no man has a right to 
teach or to instruct others, or to assume that he himself 
knows more than others, though the others may be bad 
men, or ignorant, or children either in age or under- 
standing. It would preclude us from holding up before 
men, as God has commanded us to hold up, any definite 
body of revealed truth : it would prohibit us from using 
means to prevent the spread of falsehood or blasphemy, 
just as we prevent men from selling poison, or impose 
a quarantine on those who have the plague ; and it 
w r ould place every man's opinion on the same level of 
probability, and make the will and the fancy of each 
individual the only test of truth : thus introducing as 



CHAP. HI.] 



THE CREED. 



53r 



many seeming truths as there are differences of taste 
and opinion among the innumerable varieties of 
human character, and ending in the denial of all truth, 
or, what is practically the same, of all means of ascer- 
taining it. 

Is not this, I said, turning to the Missionary, 
the meaning usually given in these modern days to the 
phrase "rights of conscience?" Andean it be good either 
in the sight of the God of truth, or of even human 
beings, who, without truth, cannot live in the world? 

The Missionary was silent; and the Brahmin turn- 
ing to me thoughtfully said, And you have omitted 
one consideration, which has often pressed on me, 
when I have heard Europeans argue in this way : that 
it must entirely prevent not only agreement among 
men, but even attempts to produce agreement. For 
if all men are equally competent judges of truth, no 
man's opinion is better than mine. And I cannot 
receive doctrines upon your testimony, because my 
own is equally good to the contrary. And again, if 
all men at all times are equally competent, then my 
judgment to-day, when I believe in my own religion, 
is as good as my judgment can be to-morrow, even if, 
convinced by arguments, I then change it and become 
a Christian. But if, on the other hand, all men at all 
times are not equally fit to pronounce on truth, then 
one man is better than another, and better because he 
is more learned, or more experienced, or more holy ; 
and then learning, and experience, and holiness become 
the test of truth, and not mere opinion. And to find 
truth we must look for the testimony of those w T ho 
possess these qualities most : and they exist most 
perfectly in God, and God therefore, and what he 
declares, must be our criterion of truth; and our only 
business will be to discover what He has declared. In 
this, Sir, he said, I believe I agree with you. 

Perfectly, I replied. And upon this ground you 



55 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. III. 



will find that the church of which I am a minister 
refers in all possible points to the simple historical 
facts, that God has revealed this, or commanded that, 
or forbidden that. And she does not like either to 
rest her own belief, or to command that of others, on 
appeals to their private re*ason and individual judg- 
ment ; though she is very desirous of proving by 
reason, and to reason, what she teaches as revealed 
by God ; and to make men understand by argument 
what at first they must receive in faitE. For instance, 
other persons calling themselves Christians, and per- 
haps acknowledging most of the same chief doctrines 
with ourselves, tell you that the Bible came from God, 
because, when you study it with prayer, it cannot but 
approve itself to your judgment as true and divine. 
My church will tell you the same fact, that it came 
from God, but prove it by referring you to indisputable 
historical testimony (into the nature of which I would 
enter at another time) that the Scriptures were written 
by certain men, and that these men, by their miracles 
and supernatural gifts, proved that they were inspired 
by God. Again, in offering their devotions, they draw 
up forms of prayer which seem to them good and likely 
to be acceptable to God. We confine ourselves as 
much as possible to those which have been in use 
before us from the earliest times, since Jesus Christ, 
whom we worship, came upon earth and appointed a 
church to worship him. Again, in framing rules for 
the government of their religious societies, they have 
for the most part invented systems for themselves 
(whether they be wise and good we need not yet de- 
cide). We, on the other hand, have been content to 
retain what we received from our forefathers, so far as 
we can trace it to original authorities, whom we believe 
to have been guided by God. 

And again, in declaring the doctrines which are 
believed to be important and essential, they have too 



CHAP. III.] 



THE CREED. 



57 



often taken up the Bible, which we all alike agree to 
be divine, and have selected from it those truths which 
affected their feelings or impressed their understand- 
ing most. We have taken, as I have told you already, 
a summary handed down to us from the earliest ages, 
and which we havereason to know has been sanctioned 
by the same authority on which we receive our Scrip- 
tures. 

And so in enjoining upon her members either moral 
or ceremonial precepts, our church wishes them to be 
obeyed as commands of God, whether they approve 
themselves or not exactly to the conscience of the in- 
dividual as wise or good. She wishes him, as I have 
said before, not to think so much or to inquire so much, 
whether they seem wise and good, but whether they 
came from God. Others might think that to set apart 
a tenth or a fifth day for solemn worship was better 
than to fix on the seventh ; but God has appointed the 
seventh, and therefore we keep his sabbath. Man 
might fancy that a twelfth or an eighth part of his 
income would be the most fitting offering to God, but 
God himself before this has named the tenth ; and a 
tenth therefore is that which we consider due to him 
from all good Christians. And so of all other things. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, this was not the account 
given me of your doctrines the other day, by one of 
the persons whom you call Roman Catholics ; and 
who, you tell me, are wrong, as they tell me that you 
are wrong. He used nearly the same w T ords as you 
have done — he declared that none but Roman Catho- 
lics thus adhered to the strict letter of their revelation, 
and that the English Church was heretical and schisma- 
tical, having abandoned the practices of her fathers, 
and severed herself from the communion of true 
believers by following her own devices. How am I 
to understand this? 

I could not help sighing deeply to observe how 



58 



THE CREED. 



[CHAP. III. 



the access even to an acute, candid, and inquiring 
mind was blocked up and obstructed by the dissen- 
sions of Christians ; and how difficult it must be to 
place the Gospel before them in its plain, simple, spiri- 
tual truths, without first removing many prejudices 
arising from the faults of their teachers, and giving 
them information on many points seemingly little con- 
nected with the more vital doctrines of Christianity. 

You are right, I said, in the report of the state- 
ment which you have heard from Roman Catholics. 
They do charge us, the Church of England, with com- 
mitting the same fault which I have laid to the 
charge of those who call themselves Dissenters. And 
I can well understand that you should be perplexed at 
these seeming recriminations, and be disposed to reject 
at once any further examination of a system which 
comes to you surrounded with such difficulties, and with 
such apparent variations in the accounts and charac- 
ters of its professors. But remember that truth in all 
its shapes and on every subject is hidden behind a veil. 
Man, wherever he appears, appears as a weak and 
fallible, and often as a deceitful being, full of envy 
and strife ; blaming his neighbour and excusing him- 
self ; interested in bringing you over to his own opinion, 
and at times not scrupulous in the means w-hich he 
employs to effect this. And yet it is through man 
that you must receive all the knowledge by which 
your life is sustained. Your parents may lead you 
wrong, and yet what becomes of a child who will not 
obey them ? Your physicians are ignorant, and little, 
very little, is known on the nature of diseases, and 
their cure ; and they charge each other with imposture 
and folly, and often become violent and abusive ; and 
yet you do not reject them altogether, and turn to your 
own self, more ignorant than they are, for a cure. You 
try to discover which of them is most candid, and 
least likely to give you what is hurtful ; and then you 



CHAF. III.] 



THE CREED. 



59 



surrender yourself to his care. Look how many per- 
sons supply food for others, of which food none are 
capable of judging thoroughly whether it be poison 
or not. until it is tasted ; and you cannot taste it, if it 
be poison, without the risk of death : and yet, having 
chosen as well as you can among the persons who 
offer to provide it, either by selling it or dressing it, 
you think no more of your death, but eat, and are 
nourished. And if a hundred men come to you from 
vour king, each professing to be an appointed ambassa- 
dor — or a hundred letters were brought you from him, 
each ordering you on the pain of death to undertake for 
him some particular service, but seemingly each of them 
commanding you to do it in a somewhat different way 
— you would not throw them all aside, and think no 
more of the matter ; but, however perplexing the 
choice, you would sit down to examine both the mes- 
sengers and the messages, and to ascertain, by all means 
in your power, which was the imposture and which 
the truth. And it would not lead you to conclude 
that all were impostors ; but rather, when they all 
agreed in so many points, and differed only in a few,* 
it would be a strong proof that there was some truth 
in their story. And thus the very dissensions of 
Christianity, lamentable and mischievous as they are 
to the cause of God's church and religion, are in 
reality an argument that its chief doctrines come from 
God. Numberless men have heard the message 
delivered, and the command that it should be conveyed 
to you who are heathens ; and they all run hastily to 
convey it, without accurately studying its contents, or 
receiving their proper commission, some, perhaps 
endeavouring to turn it to an instrument of private 
advantage ; others anxious to obtain by it power over 
your minds, that they may be able to do you good ; 
others throwing it before yuu carelessly and rashly ; 
but all deeply impressed with the belief of its truth, 



60 



THE CREED. 



[chap. nr. 



and showing the sincerity of that belief even by the 
heat and violence with which they oppose those who 
have taken a view of it different from their own. 

If they did not believe that the Bible came from 
God, they would not all come here to convince you of 
it. If they did not believe heartily in its importance, 
they would not come before you in sects and dissen- 
sions. For men do not form themselves into parties 
for that to which they are indifferent. And if there 
were not a foundation of truth in the systems which they 
variously profess, they would be wholly convicted and 
exposed by each other. Bring a hundred enemies into 
a court of justice, and let them, with mutual recrimi- 
nations and denunciations of imposition, and with many 
differences of detail, yet all agree separately in telling 
mainly the same story ; and their very enmity and dif- 
ferences become a proof of their truth, when they agree. 
Think then thus, my friend, of the sects of Christians, 
and remember that the trial now placed before you by 
God is not only whether you will become a Christian 
or remain a heathen, but which class of Christians you 
will receive as the appointed ministers of God. And 
this is the question to be considered before you could 
judge between the Roman Catholics and the Church 
of England; and if you like to enter into it, we will 
meet here again to-morrow. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



61 



CHAPTER IV. 

When we met again the next morning, I was pleased 
to find that the Missionary had again accompanied 
the Brahmin, for it showed that he was not offended 
w 7 ith what had been said the previous day. 

Sir, said the Brahmin, I have been reflecting on 
what passed yesterday ; and it appears to me that 
you have claimed to your community of Christians 
two peculiar marks, which distinguish them from 
many others. Am I right ? 

Certainly, I replied. 

And one of them was the assertion of a clear, definite 
creed, by which I understand you to mean a short 
summary of the Articles which you require us to 
believe in order to be saved ; and the other was, a 
strict adherence to the rules both of faith and practice 
laid down for you by an authority above you. 

You are right, I said. 

And I must confess, continued the Brahmin, turn- 
ing to the Missionary, that these marks are of great 
importance : for I presume, from what you both 
asserted, that all classes of Christians agree in think- 
ing it the one point needful, to know what God has 
been pleased actually to reveal or command ; and 
that nothing is of importance, at least comparatively, 
except so far as it can be shown to have come from 
God. 

We both agreed. 

And certainly, he continued, it seems more pro- 
bable that a message sent from God should be sent 
in a clear and definite than in a vague and unfixed 
form, particularly where life and death for ever and 

PART I. G 



62 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



[CHAP. IV. 



ever are said by you to depend on its reception. 
And it is a greater security to me that the message 
delivered does come from God, if those, who deliver 
it, openly and uniformly repudiate the notion of mix- 
ing with it any thing of their own, and rigidly resolve 
to teach only what they have received. 

This latter mark of truth, I said, is repeatedly 
pointed out in one of our sacred books, and is ex- 
pressed in the words of Christ himself : " My 
doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. He that 
speak eth of himself seeketh his own glory : but he 
that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, 
and no unrighteousness is in him." 1 It is in fact a 
great evidence of the honesty and sincerity of a mes- 
senger, if he strictly conform himself to the words of 
the message committed to him, and guard both him- 
self and others against mixing with it any thing of 
his own, however agreeable to his own fancy. 

Whether your church, said the Brahmin, really 
acts up to this principle — whether the creed, for in- 
stance, which you repeated to me, and your prayers 
and ceremonies, and form of government, really are 
those which were enjoined and fixed by the first 
founders of your religion, I cannot of course be assured 
of, without knowing much of the history of it, which 
at present is beyond my reach ; but I confess that the 
principle is good, and so far an evidence of truth. 

But you spoke of another point, which I did not 
clearly understand. You described yourself as an 
ambassador and a messenger sent from God to me ; 
and my friend the Missionary does the same ; and the 
Roman Catholic priests, whom I have met with, 
claim the same title to themselves. If you possess 
such a commission, you must have some means of 
exhibiting and proving it to me. And if it were 
capable of proof, it would be scarcely credible that 
1 John vii. 16. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



63 



the same commission should be claimed by several 
parties, 'who each charge the other with something 
like imposition. 

My friend, I replied, it is indeed a third distinctive 
feature in the character of the Church to which I 
belong, that she considers herself as an ambassador 
acting under a commission from God ; and that, in 
communicating God's message to man, she employs 
ministers regularly appointed and sanctioned by an 
authority which we do trace to him. She does not 
allow every man, who judges himself fit, to under- 
take this office of preaching either to the heathen, or 
to their fellow Christians. " It is nut lawful," we 
think, to use the words of her own formularies, " for 
any man to take upon him the office of public preach- 
ing, or ministering the sacrament in the congregation, 
before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the 
same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called 
and sent, which be chosen and called to this work 
by men who have public authority given unto them 
in the congregation to call and send ministers into 
the Lord's vineyard." 1 

You will observe that no one here is considered as 
lawfully sent unless he be sent by other men : his own 
zeal, or desire to do good, or sense of his own fitness 
is not sufficient. And those by whom he is sent 
must also have been themselves publicly authorized 
to do so by other men ; and thus we trace up the 
authority under which we now act to the time, 
nearly 2000 years back, when Jesus Christ came 
upon the earth, and himself ordained twelve apostles, 
and those twelve apostles by his appointment or- 
dained other ministers called bishops to superintend 
the societies which they gathered together in different 
countries ; and those bishops ordained other bishops, 
and the bishops severally ordained inferior ministers 
1 Article 23. 

G 2 



64 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. IV. 



called priests and deacons. And this is our com- 
mission from Christ. Here again, whether the chain 
has ever been broken, whether at any time within 
our Church individuals ever rose up without a com- 
mission, and took upon themselves to send out 
preachers and teachers, is a matter of fact, of which 
you cannot assure yourself without far more knowledge 
of the history of Christianity than you can possibly 
possess. But it is something for you to find us 
openly asserting this principle, and asserting it as 
having been always maintained before us, for we 
should not dare to do this if it could be disproved. 

It is something, said the Brahmin ; and may I ask, 
he continued, addressing himself to the Missionary, 
whether the same principle is professed by you ? 

It is not, said the Missionary. We hold that all 
Christians alike, who are personally qualified, may 
preach the Gospel. But still we in our own com- 
munity have forms for appointing teachers, and find 
it convenient that our ministers should be commis- 
sioned by a proper authority. 

You do in fact, I said, recognise the principle 
in your present proceedings ; but you violated it in 
your first appointments. For the leaders and first 
founders of your religious societies had no authority 
given them to ordain ministers. They took it to 
themselves, without sanction from God ; and as men 
who usurp a throne endeavour as soon as possible to 
create a title to it for their successors, and to make 
it hereditary, you endeavour to make your present 
appointments valid, though the origin of them w T as 
invalid. But can any subsequent regularity in the 
descent of an estate remove a flaw in the original 
title? Can the stream ever become pure, if the 
fountain-head be impure ? Will adding links to a 
chain enable it to support a weight, if one link above 
be severed from the rest ? Or will increasing the length 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



of a pipe enable it to conduct water from the fountain, 
if the end of it be severed from the spring? If I, 
without leave from my sovereign, chose to assume 
the office of an ambassador from him to a neigh- 
bouring king, even thoueh that king chose to receive 
me, and though my children after me might presume 
to act, and might continue to be received in the same 
pretended capacity, would any duration or succession 
in such an office bind my own sovereign to ratify 
the engagements, which without his authority I might 
presume to make for him ? Would he not disown 
my covenants, and, as soon as the opportunity came, 
would he not condemn and punish me ? Would 
zeal, or earnestness, or love of my country, or any 
fitness for the office in my own eyes, justify my usur- 
pation, or excuse me from the penalty? 

I think not, said the Brahmin. 

Believing then, T continued, that Christianity is 
a revelation from God, that it contains a message to 
man, and not only a message, but certain promises 
and offers of entering into a covenant with God, we 
do not dare to take upon ourselves the office of God's 
ministers without a commission from those who have 
by successive appointments received and handed down 
this authority from Him. 

In the very nature of things, to say the least, such an 
act would be presumptuous and unbecoming ; but it 
may also be highly perilous both to ourselves and others. 

Certainly, said the Brahmin, it would render your 
message more suspicious ; for a forward, presump- 
tuous spirit, rashly entering on an office without 
being appointed or witnessed to by others, and resting 
only on its own judgment, whether this spirit appears 
in an individual or in a society, is not calculated to 
inspire either respect for the person, or confidence 
in his announcements. 

Did not our Lord himself, I asked the Missionary, 

g 3 



66 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



[CPIAP. IV. 



lay down this test of the truth of his own mission, 
and ought we to despise it, " who have been sent by 
Him, even as he was sent by his Father ?" 1 " If I 
bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 
There is another that beareth witness of me." 2 
And when the Pharisees made the same objection to 
Christ's mission, which the Brahmin has just sug- 
gested, " Thou bearest record of thyself ; thy record 
is not true;" 3 did he not, even though he knew all 
things, whence he came and whither he w 7 ent, still 
appeal to his works and miracles as the witness of 
another that sent him? " It is also written in your 
law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am 
one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that 
sent me beareth witness of me." 4 "If I do not 
the works of my Father, believe me not : but if I 
do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, 
that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is 
in me, and I in him." 5 

Do vou appeal then, said the Missionary, to your 
doctrine of a regularly appointed ministry perpe- 
tuated from the times of the apostles, as an evidence 
of the truth of Christianity ? 

I do, most assuredly. If I come before the Brah- 
min and tell him that I have found a book, which 
seems to me individually, or to some of my friends, 
to be wise, and good, and calculated to make men 
happy, he may examine it, or not, as he likes ; but 
he will have little to induce him to do so, beyond 
the w eight of my own personal character, which may 
be very trifling. But if I tell him that I am sent by 
the heads of a vast community, that I have received 
from them a solemn appointment by prayer and 
imposition of hands, I bring with me all the dignity 
and character of that whole community to cover my 
own defects. The meanest person becomes clothed 

1 John xx. 21. 2 John v. 31. 3 John viii. 13. 
4 John viii. 17. 5 John x. 37. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



67 



with the power and grandeur of a mighty nation, 
when properly commissioned to represent it and act 
for it. And if the persons who appoint me have them- 
selves not assumed the power to themselves, but acted 
only under appointment from others, they transfer to 
me the weight and character of all that body, com- 
prised it may be, as is the case with the Church, of 
hundreds of generations, all of whom have witnessed 
to the same truths, acknowledged the same source of 
their power, and joined in offering by it the same doc- 
trines to the world ; and have, by the very confession of 
their own incompetency to originate the commission 
which they transmit, proved that it must, at each stage 
of the transmission, have beeu received from an au- 
thority above, and a generation before them, until 
we come to the last link in the chain, even to the 
apostles who received it from Christ, and Christ 
from God. 

The Brahmin inclined his head, as if to think on 
what I had said. 

Moreover, I continued after a pause, if a man 
come in his own name, or in the name of a society 
which has originated its own powers, he may fairly 
be suspected of entertaining projects for his own 
advancement or his own glory, or for the indul- 
gence of some fancy of his own ; but if he appear 
solely as the representative of another, which he does 
by being properly commissioned, he is precluded 
from consulting his own interest — he loses his 
individual character in the characters of those whom 
he represents ; and while he is invested with all their 
greatness, he is divested of all his own selfishness. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, if it be the command 
of God, as you assert, to spread the knowledge of the 
truth among all mankind, and that knowledge be 
contained in the Bible, as the Missionary asserts, and 
in the Bible and Creed both, as you assert, I do not 
see w T hy all men alike might not be allowed to com- 



68 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. IV. 



municate those truths to each other. We might 
suppose that the more persons engaged in such a 
work, the sooner it would be accomplished. 

If, I replied, my friend, the object which you 
stated were the only object of Christ's coming upon 
earth, your objection might have some weight. And 
it is because many Christians have thought this that 
they have undervalued the importance of a regularly 
ordained and perpetuated ministry. And yet even 
here you will allow that, as the Bible and the Creed, 
in order to be understood, must not only be placed 
under the eyes of men, but be explained, illustrated, 
confirmed by each other, and cleared from objections 
which must rise up in the minds of sinful and igno- 
rant men while reading the holy and all-wise words of 
God — as it must be impressed on their memory, forced 
on their attention, even though they are unwilling to 
receive it, and fixed, as a mould, into which their 
thoughts and actions may be daily compelled to run, 
(compelled I say at first, as we must be compelled 
to all good and wise acts by the hands of others, 
before we learn to relish and pursue them of our- 
selves) — as this is the case, such an office must not be 
left to the chance, capricious, self-seeking-, and there- 
fore irregular energies of individuals; but certain 
persons must be set apart for it, that the work may 
never be abandoned. And they must be placed 
under some control, that it may be properly conducted. 
And they must be taught the mode of doing it, that, 
in their ignorance or haste, they may not mislead 
those whom they are sent to guide into truth. 

And herefore it is that even those Christians, 
who, like the Missionary, have separated themselves 
from the Church, and undervalue the importance of 
a ministry deriving their commission by an unbroken 
series from the times of the apostles, and are content 
to derive theirs from some unauthorized individual 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



69 



only a few years back, still they ordain ministers now, 
and in a manner not wholly unlike ourselves, because 
they think that, without such an ordinance, the souls 
of men would too generally be left to perish. Is it 
not so, my friend ? said I to the Missionary. 

He bowed his head, but said nothing. 

But then, I continued, remember that these divine 
truths which we are charged to communicate to the 
world are, both in the Bible, and in the Creed, con- 
tained in words ; and those words are intended to 
convey one strict and definite meaning. And to 
impress these on the minds of men in any other sense . 
than the one intended by God is not to teach them 
truth. And yet, from the very nature of words, how- 
ever carefully and explicitly they are put together, 
they may be made, and are made, to bear a great 
variety of meanings. And one man will associate 
with a word one set of ideas, and another man another. 
And one will derive a particular feeling from them, 
and another a feeling quite different, either in degree 
or in nature. And this person will form his opinion 
on reading one portion of the book, and that person 
on reading another. And the more the words are 
multiplied, the more easy it will be to put together 
passages, and to involve the text, and to multiply the 
interpretations ; and the more difficult to arrive at the 
one true meaning, which probably can only be drawn 
from a full and accurate survey of the whole work. 
And if the words convey a knowledge deeply inte- 
resting to man, bearing on his affections, and hopes, 
and fears, and involving his eternal salvation, the 
more keenly he feels, the less likely will he be to 
weigh these words coolly and logically, and the 
more likely to be led away by some enthusiasm. 
And if they contain threats and denunciations against 
sin, will not sinners (and all who read are sinners) 
be glad and endeavour to soften down their severity, 



70 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. IV. 



and twist them to some less fearful meaning ? And 
if the words speak of things in heaven, of that great 
God who is -unaccountable in his ways, and unfathom- 
able in his mysteries, and yet appeal generally, as they 
do appeal, to man's weak and dim understanding, will 
not that understanding either refuse to receive them 
unsupported by some other influence, such as love 
and respect for the persons who bring them, or pare, 
and rasp down, and pervert the words, till they seem 
to bear a meaning which human reason can 
thoroughly comprehend ; and thus nothing will be 
left of those very mysteries which God declares are 
so necessary for us to believe, and which He has 
revealed to us by a special extraordinary mission, 
because by ourselves we could not attain to them. 
And is not this, I ask, the case with the truths of 
Christianity ? And have we not witnessed in Europe 
these sad results to follow from neglecting the appoint- 
ment made by God of a regular body of ministers, 
who should be bound by solemn engagements to teach 
His words only, and only in one fixed, definite 
meaning; who should be made amenable both to 
the censure of their fellow-ministers and to a superior 
authority, if they departed at all from this standard; 
and who should be able to retain it before the eyes, 
both of themselves and others, by the use of fixed 
forms, and by embodying the same truths in cere- 
monies, and by appeals to authorized books and 
living judges whenever a doubt arose? 

Do you now understand, I asked the Brahmin, the 
importance of an authorized ministry, considered only 
as a means of conveying God's message to mankind ? 

I do, he said. 

And if you were willing to become a Christian, 
would it not seem an additional security to you, that 
the faith which you embraced was not one likely to be 
lost in the world — not one which would be torn to 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. 



71 



pieces, and scattered to the winds by the first storm of 
discord — that it had in it a root of permanence and 
strength, and was indeed a goodly and mighty tree, 
under whose shade you might lie down to rest when 
wearied with the toils and quarrels of the world, 
hoping, at least, that here you would not be disturbed ? 
The Brahmin was silent. 

But, I said to the Missionary, this you know is not 
all : it is only a part, and a small part, of the object 
of the Christian ministry. 

Oh, sir, interrupted the Missionary, is it not sad, 
that instead of setting before the Brahmin the truth 
as it is in Christ, kindling in his heart the love of our 
crucified Lord, and urging him to acts of holiness, we 
should be engaged in perplexing his mind with these 
questions of outward form and discipline ? Good as 
they may be in preserving order, are they the essential 
truths of that Gospel which we are commanded to 
preach ? 

It is, I replied, sad, most sad, that dissensions and 
disputes should exist, which render such a course 
necessary. It must seem to fervent and earnest minds 
that we are dwelling on things of less importance, and 
postponing the greater ; that we are contending about 
forms, and sacrificing the spirit. And yet have we 
not been led to it necessarily ? Must not the begin- 
ning and end of all our preaching be the truth, as it is 
in Christ, and as it was delivered unto the saints ? 

Certainly, he said. 

And, I continued, we cannot teach men to obey 
Christ without teaching them to love him, nor teach 
them to love without teaching them to know him. 
Knowledge, therefore, and truth, are the foundation of 
the work which we would raise ; and this foundation 
must be laid first ; and when we began to lay it, the 
Brahmin told us that he could not acknowledge it, 
because, among the many sects of Christians, each 



72 



MINISTERIAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. IV. 



bringing to him a separate doctrine, he knew not how 
to choose. And when you threw him back upon his 
own judgment, and told him to discern, and make his 
choice by the light of his own eyes, he answered that 
he was a weak, and blind, and fallible creature, and 
could trust to nothing but that which he kuew r was 
told to him by God; and that though the reason 
within him came from God, it was liable, like all other 
gifts of God, to be darkened and perverted by human sins 
and follies, of which he knew T himself to be guilty ; 
and, therefore, if we could not prove to him by some 
intelligible outward proof that our message came from 
God, he must remain in his present unbelief. And 
then came the necessary question, which of us pos- 
sessed any positive commission from God — had God 
sent any of us rather than the others — had any of us 
a title to command that he should listen to us, as to 
appointed ambassadors from God to him, instead of 
his regarding us as mere human teachers speaking in 
our own name ? And thus you must confess that 
the question of an appointed ministry in the Church 
■ — this question so often regarded as one of mere out- 
ward form, and secondary importance — is indeed vital 
and primary. Without deciding it, it is useless to 
place truth before the heathen, now T that, unhappily, 
Christianity itself is placed before them in so many 
different forms by so many contending parties. He 
cannot become a Christian without choosing some one 
form of Christianity ; nor choose that form without 
knowing which comes to him most sanctioned by God, 
from the hands of the messengers whom God has sent. 
A belief therefore in this fact must be the foundation 
of his belief in Christ ; and the proof of it now stands 
in much the same important place as the proof of mira- 
cles stood at the first preaching of the Gospel to the 
w r orld. 

The Missionary seemed to doubt and hesitate. 



CHAP. IV.] 'MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



73 



And if you look, I continued, to the history of the 
Gospel, you will find that there is some mysterious 
connexion between these inward truths and the out- 
ward discipline or government of the Church ; be- 
cause so often, wherever Christians have neglected the 
one, they have ultimately lost the other. And it must 
be so ; because if any man whatever, without a commis- 
sion, is allowed to preach the Gospel, he will preach it 
according to his own fancy, with no rule but his own 
judgment ; and thus the truth must be torn into frag- 
ments, and no mode of distinguishing it remain. Has 
not this been the case ? 

He assented, but with reluctance. 
We think, indeed, I said, turning to the Brahmin — 
that is, we who are blind and ignorant mortals, think 
— that we are competent judges of the relative import- 
ance and use of all things ; and we presume, even in 
things ordained of God, to measure, and compare, and 
postpone one part to another, as being less advantage- 
ous to man, or less spiritual, or less extensive in its 
operation. But if it be commanded and instituted 
by God, is not this sufficient to make even the merest 
trifle — trifle, that is, in our eyes — vast, and solemn, and 
obligatory ? And is it not part of God's dealing with 
us, which you witness every day, to make the greatest 
things depend upon the least — mind upon matter, spirit 
upon form — binding up in an indissoluble connexion 
the whole world of thought and sense, so that no one 
portion can be touched without affecting all the rest? 
The Brahmin listened attentively. 
Think, I said, of your own soul, of its vast capaci- 
ties, its power of influencing others, its sensibility to 
happiness and misery, its eternal existence — think of 
the soul of any human being— one, let us say, of your 
own great teachers, or mighty sovereigns, who have 
impressed the character, and influenced the destinies 
of generations upon generations. Those souls were 

PART I. H 



74 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. [CHAP. IV. 



enchained in bodies, and those bodies were developed 
from infancy ; and in that infancy the rupture of a 
single vessel in that frail and perishable frame, the 
disorder of a single nerve, the contact of a single atom 
of poisonous atmosphere, might have caused the de- 
struction of the mortal fabric ; and, with that, would 
have prevented the growth and formation of the im- 
mortal spirit ; and, with that, would have altered the 
destinies, it may be, of the whole world. Shall we 
say that those nerves, and veins, and that frail and 
perishable body, which is but dust and ashes — which 
as it came from dust, so unto dust shall it return — is 
therefore contemptible or unimportant, to be neglected 
or trifled with as a matter of indifference ? Should we 
ridicule the nurse, who, instead of endeavouring to 
teach an infant those noble truths, and solemn duties, 
for which it is ultimately to be reared, thought rather 
first and foremost of its tender and earthly limbs, wrap- 
ping them from cold, guarding them from contagion, 
and trembling at the thought of their fracture ? 

If you, and thousands of your fellow-creatures, 
found yourselves at midnight in the midst of darkness, 
and cold, and hunger, wandering on a vast plain, of 
which every part was full of pitfalls, and snares, and 
precipices, and a hundred roads, branching out in each 
direction, and a hundred voices, each declaring that he 
alone knew the safe path — when the storm was beating 
round you, and the howling of wild beasts was on 
every side, and numbers of your miserable companions 
were dropping down each moment exhausted, or losing 
themselves, and crying vainly for help— if among them 
there was a single light, by which the one true and 
safe road could be discerned, and that light were 
screened from the winds by a single pane of glass — 
would you think him who bore it visionary or formal 
— would you ridicule and thwart his efforts to prevent 
that glass from being broken ; telling him that it was 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



75 



an outward form, that the light was the object to re- 
gard — and that in thinking so deeply and anxiously of 
that which only guarded the light, he was mistaking 
his duty, and misleading his followers ? So it may be 
with the Church, and the ordinances of its ministry. 
That ministry is the lamp, in which the light of God's 
truth is placed, to be screened by it from the pelting of 
the rain, and the winds of diverse doctrine. It is a 
frail and earthen vessel ; but so God is pleased to act 
in all his other gifts. He attaches his greatest bless- 
ings to meanest things ; and meanest things become 
most great, when by such ordinances they are solem- 
nized and consecrated. 

And now then, I said to the Missionary, shall we 
return to the point at which you interrupted me? And 
seeing him apparently hurt, as if I had charged him 
with discourtesy, — not, I continued, that such inter- 
ruptions are not most valuable. I am grateful to you 
for the manner in which you have stated your objec- 
tions. How are we to meet such objections, unless 
they are placed formally before us ? And shall we not 
be more enabled to accord with each other ultimately, 
and to bear patiently with each other's infirmities, by 
thus seeing clearly the state of each other's minds ? I 
suggested, if I remember, that besides the guardian- 
ship and inculcation of the truths of the Gospel, there 
were other objects in the institution of the Church by 
God ; other high functions committed to it, which 
rendered a regularly appointed ministry necessary; 
and a knowledge of which seemed required, before the 
Brahmin could either understand the true nature of 
Christianity, or be able to make his decision between 
the parties (to our shame be it said), so many, and so 
discordant, who call on him severally to receive it from 
their hands, and each in their own form. And this 
seemed especially the case with respect to that body, 
of which already he seems to have some knowledge, 

h2 



76 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



[CHAP. IV. 



and who are most active and most politic in enforcing 
their claims— the Roman Catholics. 

They are so, said the Missionary, and I am rejoiced 
to find that here we can join hand in hand in contending 
against the corruptions and errors of their fatal creed. 

Let us not, I said, my friend, speak strongly yet to 
the Brahmin of the corruptions or errors of any creed, 
or any body of men, calling itself, like ourselves, 
Christian, until we have placed before him a view of 
the true doctrine, and true system. He will not 
believe that the system of Popery is wrong or false, 
because w r e declare it to be so. Nor would he be jus- 
tified in so doing, any more than he w T ould be justified 
in believing that either yourself, or the Church to 
which I belong, were untrue, because the Roman 
Catholics asserted this. When he has heard what a 
true church is. he will be able to discern one that is 
false or erroneous, and not before. Unhappily, most 
unhappily, we now, from our melancholy dissensions, 
stand before him, to his own eye, not as messengers 
from God, commanding his assent on the peril of his 
soul, but as rival candidates and antagonists for his 
favour. It is a degrading and humiliating position for 
men professing to be ministers of Christ. But until 
our miserable dissensions are healed, such we must 
appear to the world, and even unto heathens ; and such 
men are rarely listened to or trusted, rather they are 
suspected and condemned, when they venture to re- 
proach or condemn each other. Deeply as we may 
abhor, earnestly as we may protest, and are bound to 
protest, against the corruptions of Gospel truth, for 
which the system of Popery is responsible, we are in 
this place, and at this time, not as yet in a condition 
to pronounce, as in judgment, upon them. 

The Brahmin looked up, as if he approved what I 
had said, and asked me to proceed in explaining to him 
what I had proposed. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



T7 



Listen, then, I said, and tell me if the words which 
I am about to repeat to you, taken from our own sacred 
books, seem true ; to express what you feel, and know 
to be the fact, within your own bosom, and what all 
men round you alike confess : 

" Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short 
time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and 
is cut down like a flower ; he fleeth as it were a sha- 
dow, and never continueth in one stay : Every man 
therefore is but vanity." 1 " What is man that he should 
be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he 
should be righteous ?*' - Vanity of vanities, saith the 
Preacher, vanity of vanities ; all is vanity. What profit 
hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the 
sun ? One generation passeth away, and another gene- 
ration cometh All things are full of labour ; man 

cannot utter it : the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor 
the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, 
it is that which shall be ; and that which is done is that 
which shall be done : and there is no new thing under 
the sun." 3 " If a man beget an hundred children, and 
live many years, so that the days of his years be many, 
and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have 
no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he. 
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in dark- 
ness, and his name shall be covered with darkness." 4 
Think how often, in the life even of the happiest and the 
best of men, such a prayer as this which follows must 
rise up to God : " 0 Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, 
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine 
arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. 
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger ; 
neither is there any rest in my bones because of my 
sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head : as 
a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds 

^Burial Service. 2 Job xv. 14. 3 Ecclesiastes i. 2. 
4 Ecclesiastes vi. 3. 

H 3 



78 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. [CHAP. IV 



stink, and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I 
am troubled : I am bowed down greatly ; I go mourn- 
ing all the day long. For my loins are filled with a 
loathsome disease ; and there is no soundness in my 
flesh. I am feeble and sore broken : I have roared by 

reason of the disquietness of my heart My heart 

panteth, my strength faileth me : as for the light of 
mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my 
friends stand aloof from my sore ; and my kinsmen 
stand afar off. They also that seek after my life lay 
snares for me : and they that seek my hurt, speak 
mischievous things, and imagine deceit all the day 
long." 1 " My soul is full of troubles : and my life 
draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them 
that go down into the pit : I am as a man that hath no 

strength I am afflicted and ready to die from my 

youth up." 2 " My heart is sore pained within me : and 
the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and 
trembling are come upon me, and horror hath over- 
whelmed me. And I said, oh that I had wings like a 
dove ! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." 3 " I 
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no 
good thing : for to will is present with me ; but how to 
perform that which is good I find not. For the good that 
I would, I do not : but the evil which I would not, that I 

do For I delight in the law of God after the inward 

man : but I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap- 
tivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death ?" 4 

It is so, sighed the Brahmin ; and to be freed from 
this burden of the flesh, from these vanities which 
mock and torment us, from this weight of a weary, pro- 
fitless, sensual, sinful existence, is the end of all our 
aspirations, and the consummations of the sage. 

1 Psalm xxxviii. L 2 Psalm Ixxxviii. 3. 3 Psalm lv. 4. 
4 Rom. vii. 18. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



79 



And you too, I continued, like us, would pray that 
the great Maker and Preserver of us all would shield 
us from such ills as the following, — ills which all flesh 
is heir to — which are " about our bed, and about our 
path," haunting us like evil spirits ; and which we 
can neither foresee nor remedy without some divine 
aid from above. It is thus that we pray ourselves, 
when we meet together before our God : that He would 
deliver us " from all evil and mischief, from sin, from 
the crafts and assaults of the devil, from his wrath, and 
from everlasting damnation. From all blindness of 
heart, from pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy ; from 
envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness ; 
from fornication, and all other deadly sin ; and from all 
the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil; from 
lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and 
famine ; from battle and murder, and from sudden 
death ; from all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebel- 
lion ; from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism ; from 
hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and com- 
mandment — Good Lord, deliver us." 1 

Yea, sighed the Brahmin, it is a prayer in which 
all may join, for all of us*sufTer alike. 

And when your heart, I continued, gave way, and 
your spirit was disquieted within you, where would it 
turn for rest ? Would you not cry with us, " As the 
hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
soul after thee, 0 God ? My soul thirsteth for God, 
for the living God ; when shall I come and appear 
before God ?" 2 " 0 send out thy light and thy truth ; 
let them lead me ; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, 
and to thy tabernacles.'' 3 "Wash me thoroughly 
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 
.... Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew 
a right spirit within me." 4 64 Deliver me from the 
workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men." 5 

1 Litany. 2 Psalm xlii. L 3 Psalm xliii. 3. 

4 Psalm li. 2. 5 Psalmlix. 2. 



80 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. [CHAP. IY. 



" Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink : let 
me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the 
deep waters. Let not the waterflood overflow me, 
neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit 
shut her mouth upon me." 1 " Thy hands have made 
me and fashioned me : give me understanding, that I 
may learn thy commandments." 2 " Attend unto my 
cry, for I am brought very low ; deliver me from my 
persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my 
soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.'' 3 "O 
God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee ; my soul 
thirsteth for thee ; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and 
thirsty land, where no water is. To see thy power and 
thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 
Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips 
shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live ; 
I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be 
satisfied as with marrow and fatness : and my mouth 
shall praise thee with joyful lips : when I remember 
thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night 
watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore 
in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul 
followeth hard after thee ; thy right hand upholdeth 
me." 4 " Deliver me, 0 Lord, from mine enemies. I 
flee unto thee to hide me." 5 

The Brahmin listened attentively, as if impressed 
with the fervour, and depth, and solemnity of the 
prayers, and feeling their need and application in his 
own heart. "And these, then," he said, " are extracts 
from your own holy books." 

They are, I replied, and they are only a small part 
of those supplications and complaints, which express 
in a peculiar manner the condition and aspirations of 
Christians. For we, like your great sages, believe that 
our souls are in this life shackled and fettered in their 
movements, blinded in their knowledge, so as to be- 

1 Psalm lxix. 14. 2 Psalm cxix. 73. 3 Psalm cxlii. 6. 

4 Psalm lxiii. 1. 5 Psalm cxliii. 9. 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



81 



hold little clearly through our dim and imperfect 
senses, polluted and corrupted by sin, wearied with 
their own vain efforts to escape and to find rest, 
and surrounded by the cares and temptations of a sin- 
ful world, and the persecution of evil powers. We 
are, like you, shut up in the prison of our body ; and 
like you we are struggling for relief; and like you 
we know but of one relief, presence and union with 
our God ; union with Him who is all mighty, all 
good, all wise, all enduring, who can satisfy all our 
wants, fill us with all perfection, save us from all evil, 
and in the depth of his own eternal spirit give rest, 
and shelter, and happiness to our troubled souls. 
" H ethatdwellethin the secret place of the most High 
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will 
say unto the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress ; 
my God : in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver 
thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome 
pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and 
under his wings shalt thou trust : his truth shall be 
thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for 
the terror by night ; nor for the arrow that flieth 
by day ; nor for the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
ness ; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon- 
day Because thou hast made the Lord, which is 

my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation. There 
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come 
nigh thy dwelling." 1 

And you then believe with us, said the Brahmin, in 
the great doctrines of liberation from the body, and 
absorption in Gud. 

We believe, I said, with you, that to be happy, and 
to be good, w 7 e, and all men, must be freed from the 
chains and burdens under which we are groaning in 
the flesh : and we call Jesus Christ our Saviour and 
Redeemer, and his religion in which we walk, light 

1 Psalm xci. 



82 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. [CHAP. IV. 



and freedom ; because he effects this liberation. And 
we believe also with you, and with all the wisest of 
men, that to be thus freed and made happy our 
souls must indeed be united with the great and Holy 
Spirit of their Creator and their God ; but in the 
mode by which they are freed, and in which they are 
then united to God, we differ from you much. And I 
would willingly, if you like, speak of these things again 
at some future time, and explain the distinction ; but 
it is now becoming late, and we have no time to enter 
into it at length. 

And yet, Sir, said the Missionary, before we separate 
now, may I ask why you have entered on this ques- 
tion ? In all the passages, which you have quoted from 
Holy Scripture, I entirely go with you ; but I thought 
you had intended to explain to the Brahmin the other 
offices and functions which you attributed to the 
Church, and other reasons for the establishment of a 
regularly ordained and apostolical ministry, besides 
the duty of its witnessing to the truth. 

I did, I replied, and with this very view I was 
obliged to speak as I have done : for without under- 
standing these great fundamental doctrines of the 
Gospel, the Brahmin would neither understand the 
promises nor the constitution "of the Church, nor be 
prepared to accept the one, and conform to the other. 
It is only one out of many instances, where an appoint- 
ment of God, which mortal men regard as a trifle, an 
outward form, a matter of policy or indifference, 
which we may dispense with at our will, is yet found 
to be deeply and mysteriously connected with the 
most vital and awful truths ; so that if the form be 
abandoned, the truth will be lost. You know that it 
is by the spirit of God, by incorporation in the 
mystical body of his blessed Son, our Lord, by the 
communication to us of his own divine nature, and by 
this only, can we be raised from the death of sin unto 



CHAP. IV.] MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 



83 



the life of righteousness. In what manner this Holy 
Spirit is offered, and by what channels conveyed to us, 
is the question which he and every heathen must solve 
to himself, if he would be made partaker of its bless- 
ings. As Christians we come to him now, not only 
professing a faith which we believe to be truer than 
his own (though even this alone would be a great 
boon, and would demand from him the most serious 
attention), but we offer to him the greatest of gifts 
which man can receive — we lay before him eternal life ; 
we open to him the gates of the kingdom of heaven, and 
invite him to enter in ; we tell him that in the Gos- 
pel which we bring to him, in that message of good 
tidings, there is a fountain to cleanse him from his 
sins ; a voice to break the chains in which, by his 
own confession, he is now lying ; a light to remove 
the darkness which now hangs over his eyes ; a hand 
to bring him to his God, and give him peace and holi- 
ness and happiness, in union with the great Father 
and Maker of the world. Is less than this promised 
in the Gospel ? 

Nothing less, said the Missionary. 

And all this is contained and secured in the one 
great gift of the Holy Spirit; for without the Holy 
Spirit poured into our hearts, man must still remain 
as he is by nature, dark and sinful, and miserable 
and mortal. 

It is so, he said. 

The gift then of the' Holy Spirit, by which his na- 
ture and soul is to be united with God, as a limb is 
united with the body, or in the words of the Church, 
is made a member of Christ, is the real offer, which 
is now made to him. 

It is so. 

And those, I said, who make this offer, so awful, so 
fearful, so full of inrinite terror to those who reject, 
and of inrinite joy and glory to those who receive it; 



84 



MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. [CHAP. IV. 



if they are offering that which it is not theirs to pro- 
mise — which God, the sole dispenser of it, has never 
commissioned them to offer— if they are taking upon 
themselves to open and shut the doors of the kingdom 
of Christ, to make sinful men "members of Christ, 
children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of 
heaven," without any authority from Him whoses er- 
vants they profess to be, and whose gifts they are 
presuming to dispense — 0 ! my friend, may it not be 
that those promises may all be made in vain — that God 
will not ratify them — that they may prove mere delu- 
sions to those who accept, and bring down a heavy 
curse upon those who presume to make them ? Think 
how it pleased Almighty God to strike dead upon the 
spot him who, uncommissioned, presumed to touch 
his ark, even for the purpose of supporting it ; and 
then think if it be safe or wise to trifle with the mys- 
teries of the Gospel, without being commissioned to 
dispense them. 

Surely the first question which the Brahmin will 
ask, when he begins to understand the vastness of the 
offer made him, will be our authority for making it. 
The greater the promise, the more we are inclined to 
scrutinize the promiser : and when two or more per- 
sons come before him, each with the same promise in 
his hand, and each claiming to be ministers of the 
same God, yet holding no communion with each other, 
he will decide first and foremost which of them is 
truly commissioned, and which he may acknowledge, 
with the hope that his engagement and covenant will 
be ratified by his heavenly Master. 

The Missionary was silent ; and the Brahmin having 
made me promise that I w ould meet him again the 
next day, we parted. 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



55 



CHAPTER V. 

The next morning, on returning to the same spot by 
the side of the river, I found both the Brahmin and the 
Missionary seated under the shade of a tree. They 
rose to meet me, and after the usual salutations, in 
which the Missionary joined, without any appearance 
of unkind feeling in consequence of the controversy 
in which we had been engaged, I proposed that we 
should all sit down together : for shade, I said, is al- 
ways grateful; and you of the East, where heat is so 
oppressive, seem always to have felt the blessings of 
it, and to look on trees, and foliage, and flowers with 
more affection and admiration for them than we 
whose climate is more cold. How often, I observed 
to the Missionary, is God himself represented to us 
in Scripture under the most engaging form, as " a sha- 
dow from the heat !" 

And the good man, said the Missionary, as " the 
tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth 
his fruit in his season; whose leaf also shall not wither, 
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." 1 

And so, I continued, our good actions are spoken of 
as fruit ; and the Jewish nation, and under that type 
the Christian Church, is compared to the vine ; and 
to sit under our own vine and our own fig-tree is made 
descriptive of a Christian's peace and blessing. Per- 
haps there is more in this than we are inclined to 
imagine. And these illustrations may not be mere 
allegories — mere casual adoptions of accidental resem- 
blances in natural objects to high spiritual truths — 
but Nature herself may have been formed by Him " to 
whom all his works are known from the beginning of 
1 Psalm i. 3. 

PART I. I 



86 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



the world," to be full of types, and images, and prophe- 
cies as it were, of great facts now revealed to us in the 
Gospel. Nature herself may be another Bible ; and 
one that we ought to read by the light of God's word, 
just as we read the history of the Old Testament, and 
only then understand it, when, in all its parts, its 
signs, and facts,. and ordinances, and sacrifices, we see 
our blessed Lord, and read the promises of the Gospel 
shadowed out and presignified clearly to eyes that be- 
hold them in faith. 

It may be so, said the Missionary; and yet there 
is a fear lest this mode of viewing things should fall 
into mysticism. 

Mysticism, I said, is a habit of searching for things 
which do not exist, in figures and forms where they are 
not intended to be expressed. But the truths of the 
Gospel do exist, whether we think that we are able 
to read them in nature, or not. And if we are careful 
not to argue that God their maker intended his works 
to bear our particular interpretation, without having 
some authority for it, we cannot fall into practical 
evil ; for we must read nature with the Creeds and the 
Bible in our hands, and not go beyond them. If we 
do think a great truth is to be found in more places 
than it is really implied in, there may be little harm ; 
especially if we do not insist on its being found there, 
presumptuously and dogmatically. 

You are speaking now, said the Brahmin, on a 
question, which interests me much less than the one 
which you touched on yesterday. Will it be imperti- 
nent if I ask you to continue what you were then 
saying ? You spoke in mysterious and awful lan- 
guage of a great gift, which it was in your power to 
corner on me, by making me a Christian, and of the 
right and title which one class of Christian ministers 
claimed to dispense it, as compared with others. 

We did touch on this subject, I answered ; and per- 



CHAP. V.] 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



87 



haps the question which we have just opened is not 
altogether foreign to it. What would you say, my 
friend, said I, turning to the Brahmin, and taking up 
a leaf, which had just fallen to the ground from the 
tree over our heads — what would you say of me, if I 
were to take this leaf and make a hole in the ground, 
and plant it and water it, and tend it morning and 
evening, in the hope that it would grow ? 

I shoul i fear, he said, that you were not in your 
right mind. 

And why ? I asked. 

Because the leaf has no power of growing, when it 
is severed from the tree. 

And why is this? I continued. 

Because the sap can no longer penetrate into it, 
and bring it nutriment, when it is cut off from the 
channels, by which that sap is supplied from the roots. 

And can the sap be supplied to it from any other 
source, I asked — could I by any process of chemistry 
create and infuse it ? 

I think not, he said. 

And yet, said the Missionary, if I cut off a twig 
and plant it, the twig will grow. 

Yes ; I replied, if you cut it off at a certain place, 
and in a proper manner. 

Portions therefore, he rejoined, may be severed 
from the one parent stem, and yet be capable of 
growth, and become trees themselves. 

Not all portions, I said : some trees propagate them- 
selves by seed, others by suckers, others by cuttings ; 
but for all these to be capable of living after they are 
separated, and of propagating other trees, there is one 
condition needful. 

What is that? said the Brahmin. 

That they should be such portions as contain in 
them an internal organization similar to that of the 
parent trunk : thus everv acorn contains the germ of 

i 2 



88 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



a whole oak, and every sucker contains the organiza- 
tion requisite for the growth of a whole tree ; but if 
this organization be wanting, the tree will never grow. 

And how w r ould you apply this to the Church ? said 
the Missionary. 

Let us wait a little, I said, and I will ask the 
Brahmin another question. If my arm is severed 
from my body, what will become of it ? 

It will become corrupted, and decay, he replied, and 
fall to pieces. 

And why ? I asked. 

For the same reason, he replied, as before : that it is 
severed from the channels of the veins and nerves, 
through which its vital spirit was infused into it, and 
so it must die. 

And can I, I continued, can any human being 
create or infuse that vital spirit, and enable the limb 
to remain undecaying, and with powers of growth and 
motion ? Can we draw its life from any source but 
from the living body to which it belongs ? 

No, said he, none but God could work such a miracle. 

None, I continued, but God. And if God had 
given a promise that he would work this miracle, then 
there would be no folly, if circumstances required it, 
in severing my arm from my body, and trusting still 
to the preservation of its vital powers ? 

None, he said. 

But if God had given no such promise — if all his 
commands rather led me to look to connexion with the 
body as the chief, if not the only mode of preserving 
its vitality, then to sever the limb from it would be 
madness and presumption. It would be a tempting of 
Providence — a trifling with the chances of God's 
miraculous interpositions, instead of conforming my- 
self to his express and ordinary laws. 

It would be, said the Brahmin. 

This then, I said, turning to the Missionary, is the 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



89 



reason why those who offer to dispense, and those who 
propose to accept the great and glorious gifts of the 
Gospel, ought to be very sure, as sure as man can be, 
that they are in connexion with that body and those 
channels, by which God has appointed to convey those 
gifts to man. If no such appointment has been made; 
if God diffuses his Holy Spirit without any ordinances, 
or any external forms and conditions, or any human 
beings to administer them ; if he has fixed no chan- 
nels through which it is to be sought, but pours it 
down (may I so dare to speak ?) arbitrarily, and ca- 
priciously, without rule to guide us in searching for it, 
or outward sign to prove that it is given, then indeed 
such questions are vain ; and so are they vain like- 
wise, if no Holy Spirit be given at all ; if Christianity 
is nothing but an empty profession of doctrine, and 
an external badge of social union. But you, I said, will 
not think thus. 

I trust not, said the Missionary. 

You will believe, I said, with us, that even to the 
reception of the doctrinal truths of the Gospel a su- 
pernatural gift of the Holy Spirit is necessary ; that 
" no man can come to Christ unless God draw him." 
You will believe, in the words of our tenth article, 
" that man cannot turn and prepare himself by his 
own natural strength and good works to faith and 
calling upon God : wherefore we have no power to 
do good works pleasant and acceptable to God with- 
out the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we 
may have a good will, and working with us when 
we have that good will." 1 

You know that " every good gift and every perfect 
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father 
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
shadow of turning 2 and therefore the greatest of all 
gifts, admission into the kingdom of heaven, which 
1 Article X. 2 James i. 17. 

i 3 



90 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



admission cannot be hoped tc by flesh and blood," 
cometh from God likewise. 

I do believe it all, said the Missionary. 

But, I said, you do not believe that for this distri- 
bution of God's Holy Spirit he has been pleased to ap- 
point certain channels, as he has fixed veins for the 
blood, fibres for the sap, courses for the streams that 
water his earth, paths for his lightnings, times and sea- 
sons for the growth of his plants, laws and ordinances 
for the increase of his creatures, orbits for his stars, 
bounds for the nations of the earth, human beings for 
the preservation and communication of his other 
gifts to men : giving life, his own life, which w r e can- 
not create, of which we know nothing but its enjoy- 
ment, to the child, not arbitrarily and capriciously, 
but through its parents ; and knowledge (and all 
knowledge is God's gift) to the ignorant through his 
teacher ; and order and discipline to the subject 
through his ruler ; and food through the labour of man's 
hand; and health through the ministrations of the 
physician ; and strength to the tender infant through 
the support of its nurse ; and aid to the wounded 
through the arm of those who are strong ; and his 
own holy word and revelation through the person 
of his blessed Son, incarnate in the form of man. 

And you do not believe, I said, that as God, in his 
own good wisdom, has in the world before us fastened 
as it were and attached his greatest gifts to outward 
and visible things, which seemingly are trifles and 
valueless, making these very trifles conditions of re- 
ceiving those gifts ; so it may be with the things of 
Heaven, and that too for the same wise reason. 

I do not understand you, said the Missionary. 

And yet I mentioned some instances of this before, 
in showing how the preservation of God's truth in the 
world seemed dependent on the outward form of a re- 
gular ministry in the Church ; and may we not look 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



91 



still further? As our life hangs upon a fibre — on a 
single nerve — on the bursting of a blood-vessel — as the 
fate of nations has been turned by the capricious will 
of a single individual — so every good that we derive 
from life must be sought for and obtained at certain 
times, at certain places, attached to the condition of 
certain outward acts, without which we cannot hope for 
them. The husbandman seeks his crop not on the waters, 
but in the earth ; and not in every soil, but only in the 
one which is appropriate. The traveller perishing in 
the desert with thirst does not expect or pray that 
water will drop down from a cloudless heaven, but 
searches for it in its pools and wells. Wisdom is ne- 
cessary to man ; but he who would learn wisdom must 
first learn the forms of letters, and the articulation of 
sounds, which in themselves are empty nothings. 
Go to the court of a king, and prefer a request ; and 
yet refuse to comply with the forms which are ap- 
pointed in that country, and can you hope the request 
will be granted ? Desire to reach a certain spot, on 
reaching which perhaps the happiness or misery of 
your life may depend, and you must exert strength 
and move limbs, which in themselves can give you 
neither good nor evil, except as the necessary condi- 
tions affixed by the dispensations of nature to the move- 
ments of men ; w T hich movements are again themselves 
conditions of ten thousand advantages, and the neglect 
of them is attended w T ith ten thousand evils. You are 
dying under the stroke of a pestilence, and there is 
one point of time after which your recovery is hope- 
less : let the physician reach you before, and you are 
saved ; and his reaching you depends on how many 
trifling circumstances — on the delay of a footstep, the 
stumbling of a horse, the breaking of a spring, the 
forgetfulness of a messenger ! And when he comes, 
he does not say to you, as our Lord said upon earth, 
44 Arise, thy faith has made thee whole;" but he calls 
for drugs, and compounds medicines, and you stretch 



92 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



[chap. V. 



out your hand, and receive them within your lips, 
reaching the good, which you seek, through a chain of 
means and causes, of which, if one link break, the 
good must be lost for ever. So it may be, my friend, 
with the gift of God's Holy Spirit; great and awful 
as that gift is, he may have attached it to means — may 
have commanded certain channels, through which it 
should flow — may have fixed human beings to dis- 
pense it in the eyes of man, though He himself is 
its only source and giver — may have made its recep- 
tion depend on our seeking it at certain times, and 
certain places, by certain forms, from certain persons, 
just as he has arranged the conditions, by which all 
his other blessings come to us, of life, and knowledge, 
and health, and strength, and goodness, and preserva- 
tion from all the ills and dangers of our existence. 

And yet, said the Missionary, God is pleased to 
work miracles at times, and to dispense with these 
outward conditions. 

He does, I said. God works miracles for those who 
obey him ; who comply with his appointed ordi- 
nances ; who do all in their power to preserve and 
to obtain his blessings, through the means which he 
has fixed : but miracles are in themselves not com- 
mon, but uncommon acts ; and they are singular and 
extraordinary mercies, which no man can expect 
often, and none may expect at all, who ask for them 
presumptuously, or in indolence. You do not recom- 
mend the farmer to pray for a miraculous harvest, but 
to plough his land and sow his corn, and then to wait 
the increase. You do not wish the sick man to lie still, 
until a voice from heaven bid him arise ; but you 
make him send for the physician. You do not allow 
the child to dream of some sudden effusion of know- 
ledge and wisdom on his head ; but you bring him 
to his teacher. 

Yes, said the Missionary ; and even so I would 
wish that Christians should seek their knowledge, 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



93 



and so much of God's Holy Spirit as may be conveyed 
through the hands of man, from his teachers and 
ministers. I am a minister myself. If such were 
not the duty of men, why have we ministers at all ? 

You are a minister, I said, in your own eyes ; and 
you profess to dispense the word of God, and even to 
administer his sacraments; both which, without the 
grace of God accompanying them, are empty forms. 
And so far you recognise the truths, which I wished 
to place before the Brahmin. But when he asks you, 
whence you have derived this power and authority 
which you claim, what will you answer. From those 
who sent you out? But whence was that power de- 
rived ? From those who preceded them? But he will 
ask the same question ; until you come back to those 
men, by whose name you are called, or from whom you 
derive your societies, and who established those so- 
cieties, and instituted your order of ministers of them- 
selves, according to their own pattern, by their own 
independent act, instead of drawing their commission 
from a power already existing. Could they, I con- 
tinued, possess such a power as dispensing the gifts of 
Gud, without his expre-s authority? And if they did 
not possess it, how could they communicate it to 
you ? Can this leaf, which is cut off from the tree, 
and which possesses no vitality in itself, infuse vi- 
tality into others ? 

And you, then, said the Brahmin, would derive 
your commission from a still higher source? 

Yes, I said ; we trace it up. and must trace it up, 
as far as human knowledge can extend — from hand 
to hand, and from mouth to mouth, until we come to 
the body of the apostles; those twelve men to whom 
Christ himself committed the foundation of his church, 
saying unto them, 1 " As my Father hath sent me, even 
so send I vou. And when he had said this, he breathed 

1 John xx. 21. 



94 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V, 



on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are 
retained." " And ye are witnesses of these things. And, 
behold, T send the promise of my Father upon you ; but 
tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued 
with power from on high." 1 And again, "And 
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power 
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye there- 
fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world.' 2 These are but a few of the 
many passages in our sacred books, by which we con- 
firm the unbroken practice of our church, which has 
from the beginning regarded her ministers or clergy, 
appointed as they have been regularly by commissions 
deducible from the apostles, as the authorised dis- 
pensers of God's grace — of his Holy Spirit. 

It is a great privilege, and gigantic power, said the 
Brahmin. 

And one, added the Missionary, which places man 
between his fellow-man and his God, and which there- 
fore may be, and has been, sadly abused. 

The Brahmin, I replied, will not object that, in the 
church of Christ, man is made the dispenser of God's 
blessings to man ; for he believes also that his own 
order is peculiarly intrusted with a similar mission, 
and with extraordinary powers. And neither would you 
object to it, if you looked out on the dealings of God, 
and remembered how in all his works he, himself 
unseen, brings us into life, rears, nurtures, teaches, 
guides, chastens, rewards, curses, and blesses us, 
through man. As we said before, the child through 
the parent, the pupil through the teacher, the subject 

1 Lukexxiv. 48. 2 Matthew xxviii. 18. 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



through his king, one generation through that which 
went before it, one country through the labours of 
another, and the whole race of mankind through 
Christ, who is both God and man. And without 
such a system, what would the earth become? And 
how would society be held together, with all the duties, 
and kind offices, and mutual sympathies and affections, 
which are the happiness and the excellence of our 
earthly life, and the preparation for our life in heaven ? 

And yet, said the Missionary, such powers have 
been often abused, as in the system of Popery. 

They have been, I said, often and greatly. But so 
have all the gifts and privileges committed by God 
to the hands of his unworthy creatures. So has life, 
which he gives to all ; so have strength, knowledge, 
wealth, power, which he gives but to a few. So the sun 
generates disease, and food is abused to intemperance, 
and affection turns into sin, and learning engenders 
pride, and the rule of government swells into tyranny, 
and even piety becomes superstition. But shall we 
therefore darken the face of day, and abandon the 
means of subsistence, and harden our hearts, and shut 
up the springs of knowledge, and break loose from 
the bonds of law, and abandon the worship of our 
God? Be assured, He, who made the world, made 
the earth to be to us a scene of trial. He does not 
compel us to be good, or to do his will ; does not tie 
us down and shackle us, so that, when we receive his 
gifts, we should be incapable of abusing them. If 
this were so ; — if God had willed solely that on earth 
his commands should never be disobeyed, — disobe- 
dience would not exist, and sin and evil would be 
unknown. But he wills that what we ought to do we 
should do as of ourselves, without the sense of ex- 
ternal compulsion ; and therefore he leaves us to our- 
selves, and places good and evil before us, allowing 
us the choice of them ; and marks out the path, in 



96 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



which he would have us walk, by words only, and 
promises and threats ; reserving his punishments till 
we transgress, and allowing some to become sinners 
rather than none should become virtuous. And as it 
is with the gifts of nature, so is it with the gifts of 
the Gospel. 

And yet, said the Missionary, is it not hard, does 
it not seem partial, that God's blessings should thus 
be restricted to a few, and none but the clergy be pri- 
vileged to dispense them ? 

And you too, then, I said, like common men, think 
that to rule and govern is a blessing, and to be ruled 
and governed is a curse. God's blessings in his 
church are not partial. His real blessing, the gift of 
his own Holy Spirit, is shared among all ; — given to 
the poorest peasant, as to the bishop, or the king. 
And yet, even here, if some inequality be observed, 
this is only in accordance with all other dispensa- 
tions from him. By inequality the world is pre- 
served. Differences in strength, differences in know- 
ledge, differences in age, differences in riches, differ- 
ences in goodness, make up the harmony of society ; 
without them w T here would be our interchange of duties, 
or the bonds of our affections ? Some strength, some 
knowledge, some years, some possessions, some good- 
ness, God gives to all ; enough, if properly employed, to 
make all happy. He varies their degrees and propor- 
tions, that all may be happier ; the less depending on the 
greater, the greater watching over the less. The wife 
is not equal with the husband, nor the child with the 
parent, nor the pupil with the teacher, nor the soldier 
with his general, nor the subject with his king. Some- 
thing they have in common, but this unequally appor- 
tioned. And yet love, and reverence, and obedience, and 
faith, and docility, and the delight of being honoured 
and watched over by those who are superior to ourselves, 
these things, the fruits of inequality, are as much parts 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



97 



of human happiness as to govern and look down on 
others, and labour for them, and receive their homage. 
May it not even be greater ? May not the humble and 
the meek, those who can only receive God's blessings 
through the hands of others, be happier and safer far 
than those who are called to dispense them ? " Unto 
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much re- 
quired : and to whom men have committed much, of 
him they will ask the more." 1 You claim to be a minis- 
ter of God, and so do I ; and so does also the Brahmin. 
He also declares himself intrusted with the care and 
keeping of his own holy books, and w T ith the spiritual 
guidance and welfare of his fellow-countrymen. And 
at times we may pride ourselves on this power, and 
look with disrespect on those to whom no such pri- 
vilege has been given. But there are also times when, 
even upon earth, all of us must shrink and tremble 
under this awful load. And a time will come, we 
know, when he, I add, like us, will stand before the judg- 
ment-seat of God, — the all-wise, all -seeing, all-just 
God, whom he worships, though not in Christ, and 
knowing little of his nature or his will; and an 
account will be demanded of his stewardship from 
him, as well as from us. If he be indeed the servant 
of a good and wise God, his office is to lead the crea- 
tures of God in the ways of righteousness and truth. 
If he is permitting them to wander into idolatry and 
sin, their blood will be upon his head ; and ignorance 
he cannot plead, because he boasts his knowledge, 
and has the offer of the truth now r made to him. 

We were all silent for a few minutes, till the Mis- 
sionary once more resumed. Does not, he said, this 
view of the Christian ministry cut off from the grace 
of God all those who may be placed beyond its reach ; 
or who have received the Gospel through other and, 
as you think, unauthorized hands ? 

1 Luke xii. 48. 

PART I. K 



98 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [cHAP. V. 



The Brahmin, I replied, to whom our conversation 
now is principally directed, would not be startled by 
such an objection ; for he believes in the rigid ex- 
clusion from the privileges of his caste of all who are 
not born into it ; and this defect of birth nothing can 
remedy; the line is fixed, and cannot be broken. But 
if we speak together as Christians, I answer, that it is 
not for man to limit the boundless mercies of God ; 
not for man to pronounce that God cannot, or will not, 
extend his blessing even to those, who are not members 
of his one Catholic and Apostolical church. We only 
know and say that God has promised his blessings to 
run through certain channels, and has attached them 
to certain conditions, as he makes food depend on our 
labouring for it, and light to radiate from the sun. 
But he can feed thousands with bread from heaven, 
and cause light to shine in the midst of darkness. So 
may it be with the thousands, whose calamity it is to 
be destitute of the blessings of an apostolical ministry. 
But the prayer and even hope that it may be so, is 
not equal to the promise that it shall be. We have 
the promise to us ; and to risk the failure of the hope 
cannot be wise or safe. 

And can you then, said the Brahmin, trace up your 
own commission from hand to hand even to the time, 
when, as you say, the apostles of Christ lived, more than 
one thousand eight hundred years ago? If, as you 
assert, the conveyance of God's spirit to man is fixed to 
certain channels, unless I know those channels, I know 
not where to seek it; and unless I find, historically, 
that your channel is preserved unbroken, I am no more 
sure of obtaining through it what I seek, than if I have 
recourse to a source which has not been appointed. 

You have stated, I replied, a difficulty, which is 
commonly urged, if it is not felt, by those who would 
disparage the Christian ministry, and represent it as 
needless ; and in whose eyes the Missionary, or any 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



99 



other individual whatever, would seem to possess as 
much right to preach the word of God, and to dis- 
pense his grace, whenever and wherever he chose, as 
those who claim this office by commission derived from 
the apostles. Let me, in return, ask you one question. 
Willingly, said he. 

You boast, I continued, to be a Brahmin, — to pos- 
sess all the privileges peculiar to that class, which 
you consider royal, and almost divine ; to inherit 
these by birth, and to derive them from Brahma him- 
self. I ask you, if you can trace, step by step, every 
link in this chain of descent? Can you give me the 
names of all your progenitors from the beginning of 
the world ? Can you prove to me that no flaw has 
taken place, that none of your ancestors were children 
born from parents in other castes, and supposititious ; 
that none of them have forfeited their caste without 
being discovered ? You boast, like us, an inheritance 
and succession of dignity and prerogative. Can you 
lay the whole chain before us? You believe that if 
one link be broken, all following links are severed 
from it. Prove that none has been broken ; and then 
I will prove to you that the channel, through which I 
offer to you the gifts of God's grace, and admission 
into the kingdom of heaven, has never been fractured 
from the time of the apostles until now. 

The Brahmin was silent. 

And I will put, I said, the same question to the 
Missionary. He is probably in possession of property ; 
at any rate he has a name, and interests, and affections, 
which he derives from some distant ancestor, to whom 
his family is traced, it may be, through many gene- 
rations. It is to the wholeness of this chain of de- 
scent, to the absence of a single fracture, that he owes 
his name, his hereditary fortune, his position in so- 
ciety, and the many duties and advantages connected 
w r ith his family ties. I ask him also to prove that 

k 2 



100 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



this chain has never been broken. I ask the bearer 

of a message from a sovereign to his subject to prove 
every step and change, through which he received it. 
Let the message be one which has passed through 
many hands ; let it be a letter transmitted from one 
distant country to another ; do I wait before I execute 
its commands, or before I take advantage of its offers, 
to ascertain all these various links, and mathematically 
prove that no forgery, no interpolation, no unautho- 
rized interference has been admitted I Or, if this 
be necessary, must I suspend my reception of it for 
ever ; since of the past and the absent mathematical 
proof never can be obtained ? No, my friend ; 
in this world such proof is not required for any of 
the greatest interests of men. We do not disbe- 
lieve such assertions until proved, but believe them 
until disproved. We take the character of a witness, 
his simplicity, his honesty, the absence of selfishness, 
his calmness, coolness, respect for positive rules, con- 
formity to the commands of his superiors, the attesta- 
tion to the correctness of his message by other inde- 
pendent witnesses ; and if the offers which he makes 
are great and good, and compliance with them in- 
volves no breach of existing obligations, but rather 
confirms and enlarges them, and a refusal of them 
seems to threaten, not only sin, but punishment ; the 
greater the choice of good and evil, the greater our 
wisdom in followiug such a proposal, even on a con- 
tingency and chance. For contingency is all that we 
can reach in this dimness of human foresight ; pro- 
bability is the guide of life; faith in the declarations 
of others is one of our greatest virtues ; and discern- 
ment of those in whom we may put faith is our 
greatest wisdom. And those whom we may trust most 
safely, are those who come to us with apparent autho- 
rity ; whom we do not choose for ourselves, by the light 
of our own depraved reason, but receive as the autho- 



if 

CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 101 

rized interpreters and ministers of His will, who is all 
wisdom and all goodness. And, when we doubt which 
among many these are, and absolute certainty is denied 
us, it is wise to act by probability ; not to reject them 
all alike, for this cannot be without ruin to ourselves ; 
but to select those, who, on a calculation of chances, 
seem most likely to be commissioned by God, and to 
be authorized to dispense his blessings. And, lastly, 
between those who do not even assume a regular com- 
mission from God, and those who do, even if they 
cannot prove it beyond the possibility of doubt, will 
any one hesitate? Is not the fact that such a 
commission is proclaimed to be essential to the au- 
thority of a minister and to the validity of his ministry, 
the strongest proof you can possess that means at each 
step of the transmission have been taken to transmit 
it aright ? And if, by human ignorance, or even by 
the fraud of bad men, these means have not always 
succeeded, may we not trust to God to remedy the 
defect thus caused ? Is he not more likely, even in 
spite of unknown irregularities — irregularities not 
intentionally committed — to ratify the promises made 
in his name by those who allow no other authority 
but his, and who believe humbly that they are act- 
ing with his sanction, and who would cease to act, 
if that sanction were withdrawn, or would remedy 
the irregularity, if possible, the moment it was dis- 
covered — may we not hope, I say, that God will bless 
such promises, more than promises made by persons, 
who take no pains to ascertain his approbation, and who 
act deliberately under a commission from man, even 
ridiculing the notion of a regular commission from 
God ? I say that the probability, the strong probability, 
that God is with us, is on our side ; and on this pro- 
bability you are morally bound to act. 

Sir, said the Brahmin, these questions may be 
difficult to answer logically ; but you ask of us no 

K 3 



102 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



[chap. V. 



light thing when you require us to receive you at once 
as a minister and messenger from God ; commanding 
us to abandon oar old and revealed religion, and adopt 
a new faith ; when, in this capacity, you make to us 
great promises and offers, offers of that union with 
God, which it is the object of our lives and of our 
religion to obtain. And yet you appear before us as 
single individuals, in no way different from other 
Europeans: you work no miracles; you exhibit no 
supernatural wisdom or goodness ; your lives are not 
like the lives of our great and good sages, who by 
solitude, and prayer, and meditation, and fasting, 
macerate their bodies, and so prepare their souls for 
heaven. And you call all Europeans Christians, and 
declare that to all of them, who are Christians, you 
have opened the kingdom of heaven, and made them 
partakers of that great blessing, which you now offer 
to us. And yet, when we look at their lives and con- 
duct, what proof do they bear of goodness, of union 
with God, of a religion better than ours, of holding 
really a faith, which nevertheless they either treat with 
indifference, or permit to be torn into fragments by 
unlimited and unchecked dissensions ? While these 
things, Sir, continue, how can we become Christians ? 

It was a point, at which I knew he must arrive, 
sooner or later ; and full as the question was of 
shame and remorse, I was glad that he should at once 
enable me to meet it. 

You have said, I replied to him, only what I feel 
myself ; what all of us feel, who are anxious to see you 
Christians, but scarcely know how you can become so, 
until the obstacle is removed which is presented to 
you by the sight of our sins and unfaithfulness. If 
all who called themselves Christians were living be- 
fore your eyes " in unity of spirit, in the bond of 
peace, and in righteousness of life," you would soon 
venerate their example, and long to be joined in their 



CHAP. V.] 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



103 



communion. That we are not so, is as much your 
calamity, as it is our crime, and your blood will be on 
our heads. And yet, I said, be not hasty in a matter 
of so much moment : if our message be true, life and 
death, blessing and cursing, are dependent on it. And 
it may be that the unfaithfulness of the messenger 
has no connexion whatever with the truth of the mes- 
sage. Weak men and ignorant, the poor and un- 
instructed, who can only judge by the sight of their 
eyes and the hearing of their ears, may be unable to 
distinguish between them ; but you are not such, and 
God, who judges us by the advantages we possess, 
will not excuse you from an error, which, in another, 
may be pardoned. 
Think for a moment. 

If I came to you offering knowledge, which I had 
found out by my own reason, and, on examining me, 
you saw that I knew nothing of the principles on 
which it was founded, or of the subject of it generally, 
my ignorance would indeed be enough to justify you 
in rejecting my offer as worthless. And if I made you 
a promise of wealth of my own, while I myself was 
poor, my poverty would belie the promise, and you 
might treat it with scorn. And if I threatened you 
with any evil, which I seemed to disregard myself, and 
to disregard it without any temptation to induce me to 
risk it myself, you might think the threat was a delu- 
sion. But the Christian minister does not come before 
you in any such form. The truths which he possesses, 
and which he offers to communicate, are not invented 
by himself but are placed in his hands by God. They 
have little connexion with human knowledge, or human 
ignorance: a child may learn them, and the sage can 
do little more than confirm and illustrate them. And 
the promises, which he makes, are not his own, but 
wholly the gift of God. He may be a channel which 
God has appointed to convey his blessing to mankind ; 



104 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



[chap. V. 



but the channel itself may be hardened and barren, 
even though it convey the water, which fertilizes all 
around it. It is the sun, not the air, that gives light ; 
but without the air light would not reach us : it is the 
mind, not the eye, that sees objects ; but without the 
eye the mind would be a blank. Will you say that 
the air cannot bring light, because in itself it is dark ? 
or that the eye cannot give you vision, because alone 
it can behold nothing ? If I sent you a jewel by the 
hands of a beggar, would you refuse to look at it, and 
try its worth, because the person who brought it was 
in rags ? How much less, if I was in the habit of 
sending you the most precious gifts by the hands of 
the poorest of men, as sovereigns in their greatest 
emergencies employ the meanest agents to conceal the 
most grave negotiations ! 

I paused here, but he asked me to proceed. 
Look, my friend, at the dealings of God, as you 
yourself behold them. Is knowledge, that knowledge 
of common things, which we derive from Him who is 
the light and reason of the world, the seat of all truth, 
and giver of all wisdom, as much as we who are Chris- 
tians derive from Him his revealed word — is that 
knowledge always conveyed to us through the wise, 
and the good ? Are even the blessings of virtue 
dependent on the instruction of the virtuous ? 
And is it not so ? said the Brahmin. 
Are there not, I replied, two kinds of knowledge 
in religion, as in all other subjects — composed, the one 
of great truths and principles, in which a multitude of 
deductions and applications are wrapped up ; the other 
of those deductions and applications traced out by 
the process of reasoning? You boast in this your 
country of many philosophers and sages, who have 
devoted themselves to inquiries into the nature of 
human knowledge, and of human reason. Must 
they not agree in this ? 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



105 



He assented. 

And the first and highest of these general principles, 
I proceeded, under which all others are included — as, 
for instance, that the like causes will produce the like 
effects ; that no effects take place without a cause ; 
that the same thing cannot be, and not be, at the same 
time; that virtue is better than vice; that goodness 
will be rewarded, and wickedness punished — these, 
and many others like them, are stamped and wrought 
by nature into the minds of all men. They are brought 
out into consciousness and action at the very first ex- 
perience of the child. The infant feels the fire 
burn him ; and, the next time he sees a fire, he will 
shrink from it, and believe that it will burn him again. 
The child does wrong ; and he will feel shame, and 
dread punishment, even though no punishment has 
been threatened. He will witness the power of his 
parents ; and obedience will seem natural and necessary 
to him. And why ? Because nature has formed him 
with these principles written on his mind. He does not 
acquire them for himself by any lengthened experience; 
he does not recognise them distinctly, as a subject of 
consciousness ; he does not even know that he possesses 
them in their full extent and value. When stated to 
him, he treats them as metaphysical abstractions, which 
none but the philosopher can understand. He calls 
himself ignorant and dull, and unable to comprehend 
them; and considers that to treat of them and study 
them is the privilege only of a few, and those the 
highest and acutest intellects. And yet these very 
truths, vast, and abstract, and metaphysical as they 
seem, have been within him, and been employed by 
him, and believed by him, and even understood by 
him practically , almost from the hour of his birth. 
Without them he could not live. Take away his belief 
that similar causes will be followed by simil ar effects, and 
he would not taste food, lest the nutriment of yesterday 



106 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [cHAP. V. 



should be the poison of to-day ; nor put his foot to the 
ground, since the soil, which supported him one hour, 
might give way beneath him the next. Remove 
his sense that goodness deserves reward, and vice 
punishment, and he ceases to be a moral being, and 
all moral education becomes impossible. 

I say therefore that here is an instance, regular and 
universal, in which it has pleased Almighty God to 
give vast knowledge to minds, which at the same time 
in another point of view are wholly ignorant. To the 
child, in his goodness, he communicates those general 
principles and truths which are necessary to its exist- 
ence ; to the sage he permits something more, and 
allows him to study, and compare them in their various 
relations and conclusions. 

And what, said the Brahmin, do you infer from 
this? 

I infer, I said, that there is nothing strange, nothing 
inconsistent in the assumption that ignorant and 
thoughtless Christians may still be in possession of 
knowledge, vast, and of infinite importance, and given 
to them by God, though they know little of the value 
of the treasure which they possess, and may even 
treat it with contempt, or doubt its existence. 

What the general principles I mentioned are to our 
ordinary knowledge, such the creed or outline and sum- 
mary of articles of faith necessary to salvation, are to 
the Christian's knowledge; and the merest child could 
teach them to you, or an ignorant adult. 

And could he teach them to me without understand- 
ing them himself? 

Yes, I said, as a man may pass from hand to hand 
a diamond, wrapped up in cotton, without knowing 
that the diamond is of value, or even that it is there. 
Wrap up great truths in words, and they may be 
passed from mouth to mouth, and from mind to mind, 
and from generation to generation, undecaying and un- 



CHAP. V.] APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 



107 



alterable, even though no one understands them ; as a 
message may be delivered in a cypher, which the mes- 
senger cannot read. 

And will God then intrust such high knowledge to 
those who are not holy and good ? 

Are holiness, I asked, and goodness necessary for 
the exercise of the memory, or the use of reasoning, 
or the comprehension of words and ideas ? Does sin 
shut up the eyes or the ears, or prevent men from 
becoming clever and cunning — from studying the 
works of nature — from creating works of art — from 
being poets, and historians, and philosophers — and 
teaching their systems to others — so far as mere intel- 
lect is concerned ? 

Perhaps not, he said. 

Certainly not, I replied. It may, and it does, cor- 
rupt their practical sense of their duty ; it does pre- 
vent them from loving or obeying those, whom they 
ought to love and obey, whether God or man ; but it 
leaves the intellect in other respects untouched, unless 
indeed the sin be of the body, and through the body 
obscures or weakens the mind. What men have wit- 
nessed and seen, what they have heard repeated from 
others, they can repeat themselves, whatever be their 
moral corruption. And this, remember, is the testi- 
mony of Christians ; not what they think and feel to 
be good themselves, but what has been put into their 
mouths as a revelation from God, by men into whose 
mouths also it was put by a previous generation ; each 
age receiving it from the preceding ; and thus passing 
on to posterity the light of truth, undimmed and un- 
altered by all the corruptions of the minds through 
which it is necessary to transmit it. We, my friend, 
the Europeans, whom you see, may not be all or most 
of us what Christians should be ; but still we can 
bear our testimony to Christian truth : and hard as it 
is to submit to be taught by those whom we do not 



108 



APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. [CHAP. V. 



reverence, their testimony you may be bound to receive. 
If they came of themselves, this indeed would not be 
so ; but their message is from God. The commission 
given to us by Christ is again and again conveyed to 
us simply in these words, " Ye shall be witnesses unto 
me, 55 "witnesses of what ye have seen and heard." 1 * 
Would you hastily reject from a court of justice the 
disinterested testimony not of one man but of many to 
facts, which had come before their senses, because they 
were not good? And the facts which we testify to 
you are facts which have come before our senses — that 
we have heard and been taught from our childhood — 
a creed, and rites, and prayers, which those who taught 
them declared that they also received from others ; 
which, looking back for 1800 years, we can trace as 
legibly and distinctly in the records of man as any, 
nay more than any, events in the history of the world. 
They have not been things hidden in a corner, 
but spread into all countries, spoken of in public, 
declared in courts, fought for by kings, contended 
against by sinners, reasoned on and disputed by philo- 
sophers, wrought into the laws of nations, and the 
framework of society, the pretence of bloody wars and 
cause of mighty convulsions ; so that in every page of 
history the name of Christ is stamped, and cannot be 
blotted out. These things you cannot know, but we do 
know, and must declare them ; and, throughout, one 
fact is maintained in the church, firmly and unshrink- 
ingly, even unto death ; and those who have denied it 
have been cast by her out of her bosom — that one faith, 
and one creed has been received from God, and that 
no human hand may add to it, or cut off from it. To 
prevent this, great assemblies have been gathered to- 
gether from the most distant nations, that they might 
examine and denounce doctrines, which were invented 
by men as Christians, and not received from God 
1 Luke xxiv. 48 ; Acts i. 8, ii. 32, iv. 33, xxii. 15. 



CHAP. V.] TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 109 



through the hands of his first chosen ministers, the 
Apostles, and of those successive generations to whom it 
was committed by them as a most precious deposit. 
For this holy men have given up their bodies to be 
burned, rather than subscribe to a doctrine, which 
came from men, and not from God ; which they had 
not been taught as the same which was acknowledged 
by generations before them. For this great wars have 
been waged, by men zealous, though wrongly zealous, 
for the glory of God, that the one true, revealed, un- 
changeable faith of God might be spread over the 
whole world. Kings led their armies to foreign fields, 
and knights drew their swords in the midst of God's 
holy temple, in defence of this creed, not as a human 
invention, but as a treasure, which they had received, 
and which they were bound to transmit untouched and 
unimpaired to their children. They gave their witness 
not to the holiness and wisdom of this creed (though 
holy and wise they knew it to be) ; they did not main- 
tain it because it was agreeable to human reason, or 
consistent with itself, or adapted to the wants of human 
nature, or consolatory in human sufferings, or like 
what uur hearts would expect from the goodness and 
wisdom of Almighty God : all this it may be, and is ; 
and when you study and apply it to yourself, as under 
the blessing of God's grace 1 dare to hope that you 
will ere long, you will find it to be all this, and far 
more so than human tongue can describe. But if such 
were the nature of their testimony, and the ground of 
their belief, unholy and ignorant men would indeed be 
incompetent witnesses ; but they witnessed to w r hat 
"they had seen and heard" — that this creed had been re- 
ceived by them, not invented; each age carrying farther 
and farther back this one unvarying declaration ; each 
by the same declaration precluding itself from the 
possibility of having invented what, if invented, it 
pronounced to be false ; until the time when the last 

PART I. L 



4 



110 TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. [CHAP. V. 

link of the chain is traced to the hands of Christ's 
Apostles, 1800 years ago, 1 "who went and taught all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and 
teaching them," not a doctrine of their own, " hut to 
observe all things whatsoever Christ had commanded 
them," with this solemn promise from him, " And lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 

I paused to see what objection the Brahmin would 
make to this statement ; and, as I anticipated, he soon 
replied, — 

What you have now urged, Sir, he said, may be 
perfectly true ; but it refers to historical facts, of which 
I can know nothing ; and the proof which is to carry 
with it my belief must be something before my own 
eyes, not merely traceable in a mass of ancient docu- 
ments and conflicting testimonies. 

I will ask you then, 1 said, to look to that which is 
before your eyes. You behold a great power, the offshoot 
from a mighty nation, which has established itself 
among you. It has brought to you arts and sciences, 
and a knowledge far greater than your own. Inquire, 
and you will find especially, that this people is of an 
inquiring and understanding mind. I speak not of 
the ways of God, but of the ways of man ; though, even 
in religion, you will find few superior. They have 
among them great numbers of men who devote them- 
selves to study ; their laws require a knowledge of 
antiquity; their science renders them sceptical, and 
doubtful in receiving any facts, except upon certain 
proof. Their judicial system, as you may observe, 
is founded mainly on a law of evidence, which requires 
that every question should be carefully sifted, that state- 
ment be balanced against statement, doubts be allowed to 
preponderate, andnothing be admitted without adequate 
confirmation. In particular it pays little respect to any- 



1 Matthew xxviii. 19. 



CHAP. V.] TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. Ill 

thing but the testimony of the senses. It admits nothing 
upon mere hearsay — no rumours, no conjectures, no 
mere fancies. This nation possesses also a multitude 
of books; it is familiar with the literature of all 
countries, of the remotest antiquity, so far as we can 
trace and acquire it ; in particular its education at home 
is based on the study of the very language — a language, 
like your Sanscrit, not there spoken — in which our prin- 
cipal sacred books are written. Almost every one in his 
youth, who is called on to fill a higher place in society, 
or to aid in the government of his country, or to exer- 
cise any influence by the cultivation of his mind, is 
taught this language, not only as beautiful in itself, 
but that he may be able to "read, mark, learn, and in- 
wardly digest 55 our Scriptures, comparing them with 
themselves, and with the statements of other writers of 
antiquity, not Christians, who wrote in the same lan- 
guage, and of the same times. In this language also 
are contained the deepest, most acute, and most eloquent 
philosophy that human reason ever produced — a philo- 
sophy penetrating, like that of your own sages, into the 
deepest mysteries — resembling your own in so many 
points, that some men have supposed that one must 
have been borrowed from the other. This Greek 
philosophy (I am mentioning a fact which you may 
ascertain by asking any European who is acquainted 
w r ith the nature of our English education) is made the 
great field of inquiry and instruction in our colleges. 
We endeavour to make all our youth think, reason, 
examine all things which they can examine with 
safety : w T e are not afraid to show them the noblest 
works of the human intellect, works which have left 
their traces upon the whole history of European em- 
pires, that they may compare them with those books 
which w r e declare to have been received by us from God. 
Rather we encourage the comparison, and insist on it ; 
convinced that every such inquirv, honestly and vigor- 

l 2 



112 TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. [CHAP. V. 

ously conducted, can only end in confirming their belief 
in the religion which our Scriptures contain. Think, I 
said, for a moment, whether such conduct is like that 
of persons who are doubtful of the truths which they 
proclaim. A man who knows his weakness does not 
put arms into the hands of his antagonist. You would 
not feed and pamper a young lion, knowing that with 
every fresh strength he would be the more disposed to 
turn and rend you. But you know (for in your reli- 
gion also there have been infidels, and heretics, and 
schismatics) that to cultivate the human reason, 
and to teach the young to think and reason deeply, 
is not easy without tempting them to doubt and 
dispute. 

It is not, he replied. And yet I must remind you 
that you are mentioning facts, of which I have no 
experience. 

They are facts, I answered, of which you may ac- 
quaint yourself by the information of any Englishmen, 
even ordinarily informed as to the state of education in 
England. Ask them, and they will tell you if what I 
am asserting is true. But this is not all. We, the clergv 
of England, in our own country, act as the authorized 
witness, keeper, and interpreter of our holy Scrip- 
tures. It is from us mainly that all classes are to, learn 
their religion, as here your fellow-countrymen from 
you. But we have done what you have not ; we have 
encouraged instruction of all kinds that can safely be 
pursued. And if Englishmen as a body are on the 
whole an understanding people from the highest to the 
lowest, it is to their clergy, under God, that they owe the 
blessing. From the prince on the throne to the peasant 
in his cottage, when a child is to be instructed he is 
brought to a clergyman. I speak of the great body of the 
nation. And we, you will observe, witnesses and keep- 
ers as we are of our holy books, have not, like you, shut 
them up. We have thrown them open to all classes, 



CHAP. V.] TESTIMONY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 113 

all occupations, all ages. We wish them to be 
thoroughly studied and learned by all men. And 
yet they are a great check upon our own teaching. 
We may not insist on men's believing any thing but 
" what is contained in them." We may not' 4 ordain any 
thing contrary to God's word written." We may not 
" expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant 
to another." " We may not enforce beside it anything 
to be believed for necessity of salvation," (Articles xx. 
vi.) These are our formal declarations ; think what a 
check they place upon our movements, how they limit 
our pow T er, how they make us responsible to another 
authority besides our own human will and reason ; 
how soon we should be convicted, if, from ignorance, 
or ambition, or the vanity of intellect, we declared to 
mankind any other gospel than that which we have 
received ! And this would be the case, even if w r e were 
content thus to fetter our own free power by the 
Holy Scriptures, supposing them to be only partially 
known. But with us they are not partially known. 

Blessed be God, said the Missionary, they are 
thrown open to the whole of mankind — to every one 
who can read ! 

Yes, I said ; and I would willingly bring the 
Brahmin to consider this remarkable fact. 1 wish to 
lay before him certain things, which seem to me to 
give great weight to the evidence offered by our 
Church to him, that she has received the message and 
the promises, which she offers to him, from God him- 
self. And these things I wish to be such as he can 
substantiate, either by his own observation in this 
country, or by inquiry from credible persons who 
know our practices in England ; and among them, 
perhaps, none is more important than the cheapness 
of our Bibles. But our time this morning is now 
drawing to a close, and it will be better to postpone 
this inquiry till to-morrow. 

l 3 



1 14 



THE CREEDS AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP. VI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

I have brought you, I said to the Brahmin, when 
we met the next morning at the usual hour — I have 
brought you what I cannot but regard as one of the 
strongest credentials, which a Christian minister can 
produce, as a proof that he is sent from God — stronger 
even than miracles, if God now, as he once did, should 
permit him to work them. And perhaps, I said to the 
Missionary, something of this kind may be implied 
by the words of the Apostle, 1 " We have also a more 
sure word of prophecy ; ,J where the strength of the evi- 
dence of the Bible seems to be regarded as greater even 
than that of the voice from heaven, which the Apostles 
heard when they were with our blessed Saviour on the 
Mount. 

And here I placed in the Brahmin's hand one of 
our smallest and cheapest Bibles. 

He looked at it curiously, and almost contemp- 
tuously ; but checked himself, as if he recollected how 
wrong it is to treat with scorn and ridicule what is 
connected with religion under any form, and as such 
is valued and venerated by others. 

Shall I explain to you, I said, why the evidence 
which in itself this little book gives to our commission 
from God appears to me so important ? 

I should wish, he replied, to hear it. 

One point, I continued, was suggested yesterday. 
If a person brings to me a verbal message from a 
friend, and that message implies that I am to place 
great confidence in the bearer, to honour him, to con- 
tribute to his support, to regard him as my teacher 



1 2 Peter i. 19. 



CHAP. VI.] THE CREEDS AND THE BIBLE. 115 



and instructor, and in many important points to obey 
him ; I fear (such is our knowledge of the weakness 
of human nature, and of the temptations to acquire and 
to abuse power) that I should suspect such a messenger 
of desiring to impose on me for his own advantage. 

Certainly we should, said the Missionary. But 
the Brahmin was silent. 

Possibly, I said, if a number of messengers came 
together, and each separately brought me the same 
message, my scruples would be much removed. 

They would be, said the Missionary. 

And yet again, I said, if they all seemed united 
and banded together with a common object and 
common feelings — to be engaged as it were in a sort of 
conspiracy to acquire a command over me, my doubts 
would revive again. 

It is probable, he said. 

But if, in coming together, they brought me not 
only an oral message, but a written communication 
from my friend, and testified that these writings had 
been delivered to them by my friend in the same way 
as they testify to having received the verbal message — 
that is, each bringing separately and from separate 
quarters the same document and the same words — 
in this case I have a double proof of my friend's in- 
tentions. And so it is with the Church. For the Church 
comes to you, I said, (turning to the Brahmin,) through 
me as a minister of the Church speaking only in her 
name — and she lays before you first of all the Apostles' 
Creed, which she declares to have received substan- 
tially, as it now exists, from the Apostles themselves by 
word of mouth. It was taught to Christians at their 
baptism, impressed upon their memory, referred to 
as a standard of the faith, and handed down from mouth 
to mouth, and in writing also independently of the 
Scriptures, and before the later Scriptures were written. 
This, Sir, I said to the Missionary, is, you are aware, a 
matter of fact, of which no doubt can be entertained. 



r 



116 THE CREEDS AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP. VI. 

But the same Church then comes forward with written 
documents, containing the same great truths, expanded, 
illustrated, confirmed by argument, exhibited in a 
variety of forms, applied to our practical conduct, 
drawn out into their deductions, filled up in many 
details, enforced by appeals to our affections, referred 
to incidentally, stated explicitly, repeated by different 
persons, all of them either apostles of our Lord, or 
immediate disciples of them, writing under their 
guidance and superintendence, or prophets who signi- 
fied the same truths beforehand through types and 
figures. This is the Bible — I say the whole Bible, be- 
cause the authority of the Old Testament over Chris- 
tians must depend mainly on the authority of the New ; 
and the authority of the New depends on the authority 
of the Apostles testifying to the words of our Lord. 
And in fact the Old Testament is little but the sub- 
stance of the New, exhibiting it, under comparative ob- 
scurity, in types, shadows, prophecies, and symbols. 
Now this double evidence is in itself of vast import- 
ance. It presents two witnesses instead of one. " And 
at the mouth of two witnesses shall every word be 
established. " But then consider the value of this 
second written document. In the case which I sup- 
posed, show me my friend's letter at the time when you 
deliver me his oral message, and I can trace his 
handwriting ; I can observe peculiarities of style and 
manner, can compare it with other letters, can examine 
the consistency and agreement between the oral and the 
written statements. If either be forged or falsified, 
it will be easy to detect them — more easy in pro- 
portion as the writing embraces a greater variety of 
subjects, touches on them more incidentally, is written 
at different times and on different occasions, and 
apparently without any intention directly to confirm 
the oral teaching. Again, in itself it is far more 
difficult to invent even a short written letter from a 
person than to imagine an oral message : the one 



CHAP. VI.] THE CREEDS AND THE BIBLE. Ill 

opens so much wider field for mistakes and observa- 
tion, and therefore for detection, than the other ; and 
the more open the writing is thrown for all mankind 
to read and examine it, the more easy it is to discover 
a forgery. Can you, I said to the Brahmin, under- 
stand the nature of this double testimony to the 
truth of the message which we bring ; and which, let 
me add, is one peculiarly our own, shared in neither 
by Roman Catholics nor by Dissenters : since the 
Romanists, while they profess to adhere to the oral 
teaching of the Church, virtually shut up the Bible 
from the people, as containing things inconsistent with 
their traditions ; and Dissenters confine themselves to 
the Bible, and set no value on tradition? 

I understand, said the Brahmin, that you profess 
to bring me the message from God through two 
channels, and that thus there is a double attestation 
to its correctness. But I do not exactly see how you 
prove that the message in either form came from 
God — nor what is the difference in substance between 
the oral teaching of the Church, which you call 
tradition, and the Scriptures. 

And here the Missionary once more ventured to 
suggest that I was entering upon questions, which had 
little connexion with real vital Christianity — that to 
distract the Brahmin's mind with these distinctions 
was worse than useless — and that Christians might 
differ on them much without losing their brotherly 
love, or forfeiting their Christian privileges. 

I can well feel, I replied, for your difficulty. It 
does seem cold, and formal, and technical to arrest 
him who, we fain would hope, w T ill soon enter into 
God's temple, and even at the very gate to perplex 
him with matters which seem at first so little to 
regard his soul. But, my friend, is not our present 
task a task of evidence? You know, as I know, 
that there is but one Power which can touch his 
heart, and bring him to be a Christian. If it 



118 



TRADITION. 



[chap. VI. 



please our blessed Lord through his Holy Spirit to 
call him to himself, and to give him repentance, and 
the knowledge of his God, he will soon become one 
of our brethren. If this Holy Spirit be wanting, no 
argument will ever convert him. But our business 
is to place the truth before him in such a way, that 
no act of ours may obscure it, or indispose him from 
receiving it. If, I said (turning to the Brahmin), 
you were one of the common people, ignorant, 
thoughtless, and incapable of sifting the truth, then 
it might be right to lay before you other points more 
affecting to your feelings. You would then more readily 
throw yourself under our guidance, if we ourselves 
seemed under the influence of strong and exciting 
emotions. But all that you have said implies that 
you possess a thoughtful and discerning mind ; and 
therefore I would willingly show you that the truth 
which you are desired to embrace is held by thought- 
ful and discerning men — that it has its strict laws of 
evidence — that it admits and courts inquiry, and 
inquiry of the same kind as that which is practised 
in our courts of justice, searching, logical, and minute. 
We cannot work a miracle before your eyes. Alas ! 
our faith in these degenerate days is too cold and 
dead to claim the promise which Christ made to his 
disciples ; and perhaps even miracles would affect 
you little, who believe that you find so many in your 
own religion. But we can show that we are reason- 
able men. 

The Brahmin bowed. 

I will tell you then, I continued, in the first place, 
the nature of the evidence upon which we believe that 
both the Apostles' Creed and the Holy Scriptures 
come in two distinct channels from the same body of 
the Apostles, confirming and supporting each other. 
You will understand it better by imagining the fol- 
lowing case. I suppose that you are in possession 
of some knowledge ; for instance, of a cure for a 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



119 



particular disease, and you desire that it should be 
preserved for ever in the world, and be circulated as 
widely as possible. What would you do, when you 
were about to depart from the world ? 

I should intrust it, said the Brahmin, to other 
persons. 

Certainly, I replied ; to many others — not to one 
only — for the more persons were acquainted with 
the knowledge, the less chance would there be of its 
being lost. 

He assented. 

.And if you wished that the whole world should be 
partakers in the blessing, you would impart the 
knowledge to men in the most distant countries, 
wherever you could penetrate. 

He agreed. 

If, therefore, the Christian faith be a knowledge 
intended by Almighty God as a great blessing to his 
creature man, we should not be surprised to find that 
He also, from the first, appointed that it should be 
made known to a certain number of men, and that 
they should spread it abroad and impart it to others 
in every region over the face of the globe. 

Certainly not. 

This then, I said, we know to be the case. We 
possess positive historical proofs that Jesus Christ 
did communicate his Gospel, not to one apostle, but to 
a body of twelve ; and that those twelve, under his 
express command, went abroad into all lands for the 
very purpose of gathering a Church in each, that is, 
a body of men, in whose hands they might place this 
inestimable deposit of the truth. You cannot trace 
this history for vourself ; but you can ask the Euro- 
peans around you whether this is not asserted and 
received in the face of the most searching and captious 
criticism by vast and understanding nations. 

I will take it for granted, said the Brahmin. 



120 



TRADITION". 



[chap. VI. 



Let us return, I said, to our case. It would then 
be a matter of no little moment that this communi- 
cation should be made by you, not to one individual, 
and by him to another individual, even though this 
last one should afterwards convey and diffuse it among 
many others — for a story told me by ten thousand per- 
sons, if it be ultimately traced to one single authority, 
carries with it no more weight than the voice of 
that single man. They are not ten thousand witnesses, 
all declaring, separately and independently, what each 
has heard and seen with his own senses, but are 
mere tale-bearers and repeaters of one story heard 
from one source. For this reason it is important for 
ycu to remember that our blessed Lord, whose words 
we profess to keep, did not intrust them to one 
apostle, but to twelve ; and those twelve went sepa- 
rately forth into the countries where they preached 
the Gospel, and there each for themselves deposited 
the truth independently. Whatever, therefore, we 
thus find to have been taught by them all, severally, 
we believe to have been taught them jointly by Christ. 
Our object is to know what Christ the Son of God re- 
vealed and commanded to man. Knowing this, we 
believe that we know the will and the truth of 
God ; and we know this by the joint, common, but 
separate and independent declaration of the twelve 
Apostles, to whom it was first communicated. If 
it would please Almighty God to bring those twelve 
men upon the earth figain, and they all inde- 
pendently made to you the same declaration of the 
doctrine, which they had received from their Lord 
and Master, would you doubt their testimony to this 
simple fact ? Would any court of justice or law of evi- 
dence repudiate such a body of witnesses — witnesses, 
remember, to a simple fact — without the most over- 
whelming proof of their falsehood ? 

Probably not, said the Brahmin. 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



121 



How then, I said, would you guard against the 
gradual loss or corruption of this knowledge in the 
several bodies to whom it was conveyed ? 

One mode, of course, said the Brahmin, would be to 
enjoin them under solemn sanctions never to alter it. 

It would be, I said ; and hence we find such in- 
junctions as the following in our sacred books : 

" Hold fast the form of sound words which thou 
hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in 
Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed 
unto thee, keep, by the Holy Ghost which dwell eth in 
us." 1 " Charge some that they teach no other 
doctrine."' 2 

"Though we or an angel from heaven preach any 
other Gospel unto you than that which we have 
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said 
before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other 
Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be 
accursed." 3 " Those things which ye have both learned, 
and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the 
God of peace shall be with you." 4 " If ye continue in the 
faith grounded, and settled, and be not moved away from 
the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard, and which 
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, 
whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." 5 " As ye have 
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in 
him ; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the 
faith, as ye have been taught; abounding therein with 
thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through 
philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men ? 
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." 6 
" Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions 
which ve have been taught, whether bv word, or our 
Epistle." 7 

1 2 Timothy i. 14. 2 1 Timothy i. 3. 

3 Galat. i. 8, 9. 4 Philip, iv. 9. 5 Colossians i. 23. 

6 Colossians ii. 6, 7, 8. ? % Thessal. ii. 15. 

PART I. M 



122 



TRADITION. 



[chap. VI. 



And to these solemn injunctions let me add one 
more of the same kind, applying peculiarly to the 
Bible, and with which our Bible closes. " For I tes- 
tify unto every man that heareth the words of the 
prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto 
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that 
are written in this book. And if any man shall take 
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, 
God shall take away his part out of the book of life, 
and out of the holy city, and from the things which 
are written in this book." 1 

Here then, I said, you find what you required ; and 
if you were able to read the history of the true Catholic 
Church, you would perceive in it this principle steadily 
inculcated and enforced. In its best times, whenever 
a question has arisen as to the soundness of a parti- 
cular doctrine, it has been answered, not by appealing 
to the reason or feelings of men, but to the standard 
which we have reason to believe we possess, as left to 
us by the Apostles. To go beyond this, or to alter it, 
we are not permitted. 

How then, said the Brahmin, do you know that the 
faith which you now profess is the same with that 
which was communicated, as you say, by the Apostles 
to the various churches which they founded ? 

We know it, I answered, by that on which I wish 
to rest the great evidences of Christianity, by historical 
testimony, — testimony to w r hat men saw and heard. 
We possess documents which inform us of the prac- 
tices, history, and disputations of the Church in various 
countries, and in the earliest ages. In these we find 
it asserted, that certain forms of doctrines w T ere taught 
to children, were publicly professed, were accepted as 
terms of communion, w r ere proclaimed regularly by 
authorities in the Church when they entered solemnly 
on their offices, w r ere interchanged between them, were 

1 Revel, xxii. 18, 19. 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



123 



appealed to in controversies, were recognised as unal- 
terable even in the least point, and were employed as 
authorized tests and standards of truth. When great 
bodies of rulers of the Church came together to pro- 
nounce on the unsoundness of some new doctrine or 
heresy which troubled the Church, they brought each 
from their several countries, from communions founded 
by different Apostles, " that form of sound words" 
which had been regularly handed down to them from 
apostolical times ; and when these were found to agree, 
no doubt remained as to what had been the Apostles' 
teaching. The prevalence of one uniform faith limited 
carefully to a certain number of articles, and this in 
great variety of different countries, is a proof which 
cannot be resisted, that they were all derived from one 
source ; and this source, in the case of the substance of 
the Creed, was the apostolical body. And the agreement 
of the apostolical body in their separate missions proves, 
upon the same principle, that they also derived their 
teaching from one and the same source; a source from 
which they dared not detach themselves; and that 
source was Christ. This is w T hat we mean by the 
testimony of the Catholic Church. It consists not in 
numbers ; for millions of men deriving their opinion 
from a single individual would not be equal to the 
authority of twelve men who separately attested to the 
same fact, which they had severally seen or heard. 
But it is the witness of separate, independent, distinct 
churches tracing their origin to distinct sources, com- 
municating with each other, but not deriving their 
faith from each other, nor united under one govern- 
ment on earth, and yet each possessing a document 
substantially the same. Substantially, I say, because 
the various creeds, which we know to have been used 
in the churches of antiquity, were not verbally and 
literally the same: but so agreed in the number of 
their articles, that the very diversity in slight points is 

m 2 



124 



TRADITION. 



[CHAP. VI. 



a further proof of their general correctness; as two 
accounts of a fact harmonizing in all essentials, and 
slightly varying in unimportant details, will be more 
readily believed to be true than if they are verbally 
the same, and so may be suspected to be copies from 
some other single authority. 

And in this point, I said to the Missionary, as in so 
many others, the Brahmin may hereafter see what 
mischief has been introduced into the Church by the 
unhallowed pretensions of Popery ; for by claiming a 
single supremacy, and merging the right and witness 
of all other branches of the Church in her own solitary 
voice, she would virtually destroy the very constitution, 
on which the safety of the Truth, humanly speaking, 
depends. 

And where then, asked the Brahmin, is that unity, 
of which vou have before spoken, as necessary to your 
Church? 

It is to be preserved, I said, by other means than ral- 
lying round some single visible centre of government 
on earth. But this point let us reserve. And I will 
now proceed to tell you that on the same testimony, 
that is, on historical documents explaining to us the 
practices of many, distinct, independent churches, we 
believe the Scriptures which we possess to be substan- 
tially the same as those which proceeded from the 
hands of the Apostles. As such they have been always 
received by the churches from the earliest times. Lists 
have been preserved, by which the works considered 
as authoritative may be distinguished from those which 
are spurious, or less divinely inspired. It was the 
common practice of the churches to read these Scrip- 
tures in their public services, and to insist on their being 
read privately by Christians. They were referred to 
even in the original documents in controversy ; were 
allowed to be genuine even by those who departed from 
the old and true standard of faith ; and were quoted 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



125 



from so largely in works written at that period, that 
even if any calamity from God should now deprive us 
of his blessed Word in the form in which we now pos- 
sess it, we might almost recover and reconstruct it all 
from the extracts which have been made from it by the 
various writers of antiquity in most distant countries. 
Remember, my friend, one only question is before you 
at present. Did the articles of our Creed, and did our 
Holy Scriptures — in their substance — in all important 
parts — come to us from a body of men who lived 
1800 years ago, and who called themselves Apostles 
or messengers of a Being whose name they bore, 
Jesus Christ our Lord ? Whe:her the message which 
they have delivered to us was delivered to them by 
Christ, is a separate question, to be argued and proved 
in another way. And again, whether the message 
delivered to them by Christ was communicated to 
Christ by God, this also is another question. But the 
first step for us to take is to show you that the truths 
which we now offer, and the promises which we make 
to you, have been transmitted to ourselves from the 
Apostolical body. 

I understand you. said the Brahmin. You wish to 
trace your right to the possession and privileges of 
Christianity, as you trace a right to certain property, 
by showing that it has passed through certain hands, 
and bringing forward the title-deeds, which prove and 
justify its transmission at each step. This, I believe, 
is the practice in all courts of law. 

Precisely so, I said ; and I wish to have the case 
argued as in a court of law, the testimony sifted, and 
the balance of probability struck as in ordinary tech- 
nical cases. For though no amount of testimony of 
this kind will convince an unbeliever, in whose heart 
the Spirit of God does not implant faith, such a mode 
of proceeding, as I before said, will exhibit more 
strikingly the sobriety, thoughtfulness, andreasonable- 

M 3 



126 



TRADITION. 



[CHAP. VI. 



ness of the Christian Church, even at the very time 
when she is claiming what to human eyes may appear 
the most mysterious and extravagant of powers. And 
it will give to belief already working in the mind sup- 
port and comfort in the moment of occasional mis- 
givings. And it will perfect the faith already strong, 
by explaining the grounds, and the relations, and the 
mutual connexion of principles acknowledged, though 
as yet imperfectly understood. For so in all things 
we must proceed : first receive in faith great principles 
from the hands of proper witnesses, and then expand, 
confirm, and adjust them by human reason. And one 
more object of such a process is to condemn those 
before whom such evidence is set, and who will not 
listen. " He that rejecteth me, said our Lord, and re- 
ceiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : 
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge 
him in the last day.' 51 Do not think, I entreat you, 
that any reasoning alone will bring you to God. 
If you wish to know the truth honestly and sincerelv, 
kneel down and pray that He would bring you to it. 
Keep yourself from all evil. Give yourself up hum- 
bly and patiently to examine what is set before you. 
Try whether what is promised you is true. And thus 
your belief will be perfected, — but by holy acts and 
heartfelt prayer, more than by human words and 
reason. 

You do not, then, wish to make a proselyte of me? 
said the Brahmin. 

I can make no proselyte of anyone. I replied. God 
alone can turn the heart. But I am commanded to 
place his message before you, and to witness to its 
truth ; and I do pray that, in his infinite mercy, he 
would be pleased to bring you and all men to himself. 
But I use no rhetoric; I make no appeals to your 



1 John xii. 4S. 



C ,HAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



127 



feelings ; I do not urge you by any worldly considera- 
tion. As the prophets of the Most High have done 
before, I would set before you life and death, blessing 
and cursing, and say to you as they^did, Now there- 
fore choose life ! But this is all. This, I think you 
will say, is not like the conduct of one who spoke of 
himself, or wished power for himself, But such is 
the conduct enjoined on the ministers of the Church. 

The Brahmin continued to muse within himself 
without speaking ; and I was unwilling to interrupt 
him. But the Missionary returned to the other ques- 
tion which had been suggested, respecting the con- 
nexion between the Creed and the Bible. 

You have spoken, he said, strongly on the historical 
testimony of the Bible. I have been accustomed to 
dwell more on its internal evidence, as more satisfac- 
tory and open to all men, whether learned or not ; and 
I should like hereafter to speak on this subject. But 
at present I would ask you to explain the exact con- 
nexion which you presume to exist between the Creed 
and the Bible. The Brahmin suggested it just now. 
And at these words the Brahmin raised his head, and 
signified his willingness to attend. 

You ask me, I said, to explain a question, which, 
you are aware, has been much perplexed, and sur- 
rounded with difficulties ; chiefly by the abuse of 
names, and secondly by the tendency of our evil 
hearts to charge everything with evil which seems, 
however w 7 rongly, to resemble that which from our 
youth we have been taught to dislike and dread. And 
if I enter on the doctrine of tradition, so called, as it 
is held in our Church, you will charge me with need- 
lessly perplexing the Brahmin's mind with discussions 
on forms. And yet this may be a most important part 
of the historical testimony which he is called on to 
weigh. He himself, in his own system of religion, 
recognises something like tradition as of no small im- 
portance in religion ; and the moment he enters upon 



128 



TRADITION'. 



[chap. VI. 



the examination of Christianity, he will be beset with 
the claims not only of the Church, but of Roman- 
ists and Dissenters also, striving to attach him to their 
several communions. And when they place each their 
doctrine before him, if he is to weigh them aright, he 
must demand the proof that it comes from God ; and 
this proof involves the question of the mode in which 
it has passed or been handed down into their keeping : 
in other words, the question of Tradition. It is 
therefore a most important and essential preliminary 
to the study of the Christian Evidences. 

It must be so, said the Brahmin, who, not being 
aware of the associations connected in the mind of the 
Missionary with the name of tradition, in consequence 
of its false application and abuse by Popery, was by 
no means alarmed like him at the mention of it. 

And I fear, I said, we shall be obliged to repeat the 
same thing many times. And yet, perhaps, this is 
the only way of impressing; on the mind great princi- 
ples, which are to be the foundation of all our reason- 
ing. 

We have stated before, I continued, that our 
Church has received from the Apostles a short sum- 
mary of certain facts, which she will require every man 
to accept and subscribe to, before she will admit him 
to that baptism, by which, to use her words, he is made 
" a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor 
of the kingdom of heaven," and so becomes a partaker 
of all the Christian privileges. She has also, you will 
remember, in the Bible a vast amount of knowledge, 
I do not say additional to this creed, but illustrative 
and explanatory of it, and which she will also commu- 
nicate to him as his Christian education advances. 
But 'the amount of preliminary conditional knowledge, 
which is absolutely essential to a Christian's salvation, 
she limits to the Apostles' Creed : just as you may 
say to a person who owes you a thousand pounds, I do 
not at this moment require the whole, but a certain 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



129 



portion I must receive now, and without it is paid I 
can enter into no compromise whatever. And I said 
before, that to fix such a limit as this in a mass of 
knowledge all derived from God, all good for man, all 
obligatory on our reception of it as divinely inspired, 
is to take upon ourselves an awful responsibility. It 
is no less than to presume on distinguishing ourselves 
between the more or less important parts of a whole 
which, as coming to us from Almighty God, we are 
bound to receive and to reverence as a whole. That 
she may not be guilty of such a presumption, nor 
either widen or narrow the gates of heaven .beyond 
what God has himself appointed, the Church of Eng- 
land again produces the historical catholic testimony 
of the early Church. She justifies herself in restrict- 
ing her terms of salvation to the Apostles' Creed, and 
yet in rigidly insisting on this, by the practice of 
numerous distinct independent churches, who did the 
same, and did it as an appointment received from the 
Apostles. Here again we revert to the Apostolical 
body, and what was sanctioned by them we believe to 
have been sanctioned by God. Why, we may con- 
sider hereafter. 

You have stated this clearly enough, said the 
Brahmin. 

But, I continued, the Church of England goes still 
farther. I have repeated to you many passages from 
the Scriptures, commanding most solemnly that no 
alteration should be made by man in the message of 
the Gospel, as it came from God. And however it 
be guarded and watched, still the oral transmission of 
doctrines may possibly be liable to corruption. To 
guard against this possibility — to place the eyes of all 
Christians over the clergy, who teach the truth — just 
as written laws are promulgated to guide, support, and 
justify the decisions of living judges, the ancient 
Church, in a practice so universal as to be fairly con- 
sidered to have again apostolical authority, declared 



130 



TRADITION. 



[tfHAP. VI. 



that no article of faith should be taught in the Creed 
without at the same time being confirmed by Scrip- 
ture. She felt as a guardian would feel who w r as 
about to give to his ward an account of his steward- 
ship — conscious that he has acted with perfect inte- 
grity, convinced that there is nothing in his accounts, 
which will not be supported by reference to the bills, 
demanding from his ward entire confidence, and en- 
joying it also ; yet if the ward proposed to sign the 
settlement of the accounts without examining the 
vouchers, the guardian would refuse to permit it. He 
would say, " Your confidence is right. What I place 
before you is correct, and you will find it to be so. 
You ought to have no doubt or misgiving as to my 
perfect integrity. You should not wish or need to be 
satisfied of it by any further examination, because you 
have known my character, and our mutual affection 
implies on each side unbroken confidence. Never- 
theless, you must not take my statement on my own 
word. You must confirm it by the written evidence. 
And why ? Because the principle is right of main- 
taining every possible guard against the possible cor- 
ruption and frailty of human nature. It is better 
that you should have a superfluous labour imposed on 
you than that you should open the door to the contin- 
gency of future fraud. Let sure be made doubly 
sure. Your affection and confidence for me will not 
be diminished by such a confirmation, however need- 
less it may be to satisfy yourself ; and my mind will 
be made easier by removing every possibility of sus- 
picion." And thus the Church Catholic, in her watch- 
ful precaution against the frailty of her own nature, 
not only declares that the creeds ought thoroughly to 
be received and believed, and might receive and be- 
lieve them herself, and require others to do the same, 
simply on the testimony of the ancient Church to their 
origin and authority, which testimony she holds suffi- 
cient for the establishment of so many other truths ; 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



131 



but she adds [Article viii.] " for they may be proved 
by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture." She 
insists on giving to her children, and on her children's 
requiring from her, this double proof of apostolical 
authority. Is this, I ask again, the conduct of one 
who wishes to impose upon the world, or to gain over 
the belief of men, credulous, indolent, and enthusiastic, 
to a system which thev know to be false, and which 
they maintain themselves either from prejudice or 
self-interest ? 

No, said the Brahmin, certainly ; and it struck me 
that his eye met my own with more of confidence and 
satisfaction. 

But, said the Missionary, you have confined your- 
self here to the Apostles' Creed; whereas the eighth 
article of your Church speaks of three creeds, and of 
all of them in the same language. 

It does, I said ; and I will now proceed to explain 
to the Brahmin the relation of these three to each 
other, for otherwise he may easily be perplexed. And 
I do it the more readily, because he can scarcely find 
anywhere a more striking proof of the care and anxiety 
with which the Church guards the deposit of her 
faith, nor therefore of her trustworthy character, and 
of the credibility of her declaration that she bears a 
message from her God. If a servant announced that 
he was carrying about with him a great and fragile 
treasure intrusted to him by a powerful master, who 
would assuredly revenge the slightest injury which 
befell it, and if he yet walked carelessly, and took no 
pains to secure it, you would distrust his story. And 
if he repeats, in many different- forms, an important 
statement solemnly made to him, varying it more or 
less, apparently without any regard to some one 
original standard from which he is afraid to depart, 
you may suspect his whole statement to be one in- 
vented by himself. But if he adheres rigidly and 



132 



TRADITION". 



[chap. VI. 



scrupulously to one declaration, protesting against the 
alteration of a single letter in it, catching at the slight- 
est deviation, and even becoming angry when he hears 
of one, this in itself would be a strong presumption 
that he had really received the message from some one 
whose authority he feared. And if a soldier shows in 
every feature vigilance, and anxiety, and cautiousness, 
— trembles at any sound which threatens danger, and 
starts to seize his arms, sometimes, it may be, need- 
lessly and impatiently, but Still with earnestness and 
zeal, at the approach of an enemy, you would suspect 
at once that he had been intrusted with some 
great post, which he was under a solemn obligation 
to defend. So it is with the Church. And so think, 
when you hear of her being distracted by dissensions 
of party protesting against party, of harsh language 
and mutual recrimination — it may be even of worse 
things. If these parties are contending for opinions 
of their own, for the reputation of some favourite 
teacher, for anything in which merely their own feel- 
ings are interested, you may look on such controver- 
sies even with the contempt so commonly expressed 
for theological disputes — or rather you may condemn 
them as wicked. But before you do this, examine if 
either side be contending for that which they have not 
chosen for themselves, but have received from another, 
and by him are bound over to guard it. You will 
hear of large bodies of priests brought together from 
different parts of the world, contending with vehe- 
mence and anxiety for and against the insertion of a 
single letter in a word contained in the profession of 
their faith. You will find those who professed the 
Christian faith in the East severing themselves from 
those in the West, because two words were introduced 
by the latter into their common creed, though the 
doctrine contained in those words both of them alike 
believed to be true. 1 You will meet with the most 
1 Pearson on the Creed, vol. i. 492. 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



133 



solemn curses denounced by bodies of great, good, 
and holy men on all who made the slightest alteration 
in the formulary which they put forth as expressing 
the true doctrines of Christians. Now observe of all 
this violence, as it seems, and dogmatism, that the 
greater the violence and the more arrogant the dog- 
matism (and you will meet with many who will 
describe it to you sneer in gly, and with a virtuous in- 
dignation at the uncharitableness of such conduct), the 
more unintelligible it becomes on the supposition that 
the doctrines there propounded were invented by the 
persons who propounded them, or that they could be 
traced to a human source, or that they were not gene- 
rally acknowledged by the world at large as a revela- 
tion. You cannot, at any period, command the w T orld 
to receive a doctrine as traditional, which the world 
has never heard before. Their own experience will at 
once refute yours. And remember the fact of this 
tradition is all that I am now pointing out. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. 

And now then, I continued, you maybe better pre- 
pared to hear that, besides the Apostles' Creed, the 
Church of England possesses two others, which she 
will also teach you. One of these is called the Nicene 
Creed ; and its origin is this. A man of the name 
of Arius had promulgated doctrines which were con- 
trary to the received belief of the Christian Church. 
This was more than three centuries alter Jesus Christ 
was upon earth. Bishops, or heads of the several 
churches which the Apostles and their successors had 
founded in different parts of the world, were called 
together, to the number of more than three hundred. 
They compared together the creeds and doctrines, 
which they had always severally received and pro- 
fessed as transmitted to their churches from apostolical 
authority. They declared that Arius's doctrine w r as 
false, because it was at variance with these — not 

PART i. N 



134 



TRADITION. 



[CHAP. VI. 



merely because it did not approve itself to their own 
minds. They annexed a few, very few, words to the 
Apostles' Creed, in order to guard Christians against 
these novel interpretations of it. They confirmed their 
own declaration by proofs from Scripture. Their 
declaration and their creed were admitted by the 
Church generally. One more great council on the 
same principle added a few more words, containing 
truth already acknowledged as apostolically sanction- 
ed, and only developing a fact already stated in the 
earlier form ; and any future alteration was in the 
most solemn manner forbidden and condemned. And, 
as I before told you, there exists at this moment, 
between the Christians of the East and of the West, a 
most melancholy estrangement and separation, chiefly 
on this ground, that in the West a Romish bishop did 
venture to introduce two more little words into this 
creed thus established, without the concurrent sanc- 
tion of the whole Church. But the creed thus scru- 
pulously and religiously enlarged, the Church of 
England, like the Church of old, fully receives and 
believes. She believes the testimony of the indepen- 
dent churches of that day to the fact that such was 
the doctrine at that time traditionally held. She has 
faith also in the promise of God made to us by Jesus 
Christ, that he would be with his Church even to the 
end of the world. And therefore, wherever we can 
find a fair and sufficient representative of the whole 
body of Christians, which may reasonably be sup- 
posed to express the general spirit, there we humbly 
hope that Almighty God will not permit them to be 
led into error. Moreover, we ourselves compare their 
declarations with Scripture, and find them to be in 
accordance with it ; and in this we are supported by 
the general testimony of the Church before us for 
1500 years, who have received them likewise. 

Why then, said the Brahmin, do you make any 



CHA.P. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



135 



difference between these two creeds? Why, if the 
second is fuller and more perfect than the first, and 
a greater security against error, do you not employ it 
to the exclusion of the other ? 

Because, I said— (this is the point on which I 
would fix your attention) — because, although we fully 
believe it, and venerate most highly the authority 
by which it was put forth, that authority was human, 
when compared with that on which the first Creed 
rests. Any alteration even of words, even of letters, 
even any development of doctrine already existing, 
if it be made by men in human words, is liable to 
error. We wish to keep rigidly and scrupulously 
what the Apostles, under Christ, have fixed as the 
terms necessary for salvation. And ahhough we 
blame not in any way the Eastern Christians, who 
have adopted this second or Nicene Creed in their 
form of baptism, and so make it the condition of 
salvation, they will not, and do not blame us if we 
retain for this purpose the old original Apostles 5 Creed, 
and are content to express our own entire and glad 
concurrence in the second one, by solemnly re- 
peating it in the most solemn of our Church services. 

Tne Missionary, who had never heard of the dis- 
tinction before, seemed pleased. And you then agree 
with us, he said, in rigidly excluding human tradi- 
tions and interpretations of men from the Word of 
God. 

Most assuredly, I said. It is the great maxim of 
the Catholic Church, and therefore of that branch of 
it to which it is my blessing to belong. And we 
think we exclude this better by confining ourselves 
to the testimony of the Church as to what she has 
always received and been taught — to tradition, that 
is, in the right sense of the word, — than by prohibit- 
ing any reference to antiquity, and placing each 

n 2 



136 



TRADITION". 



[chap. VI. 



individual before the Bible to reject or receive it, 
and to interpret its meaning by himself, according as 
it seems good to his own human fancy. We use tra- 
dition as the greatest, perhaps the only security against 
human admixtures with divine truth. And we ask the 
Church reverently, and we wish you to ask her, just as 
a witness is interrogated in a court of justice, not to 
tell what she thinks or feels, nor to repeat the mere 
opinions of others, (for such is not part of our law of 
evidence,) but to declare simply and exactly what 
she has " seen and heard." 

You are dwelling on this point at great length, 
said the Brahmin, smiling. 

I am, I replied, for it is the foundation of our 
belief — a foundation which of late years has been 
much shaken by zealous or ignorant men; and one 
which cannot be placed forward too strongly, as in 
itself a main evidence of the truth of Christianity. 

And what then, said the Missionary, is the case 
with respect to the third or Athanasian Creed, which 
you use in your services, and which appears to me 
by far the most objectionable, as exhibiting far more 
of subtle distinctions and human reasoning than any 
other part of your formularies ? 

It does, I said — it is a human composition. It was 
drawn up for the purpose of stating, as accurately 
and distinctly as possible, the great mysteries of the 
Christian faith, so as to guard against the intrusion of 
those novel and heretical doctrines by which men's 
minds were then distracted. It has been accepted 
generally by the body of the Church as conformable 
to the true and traditional doctrines, as only an 
accurate development of the other creeds, and as 
consonant to Scripture. And yet, observe, though 
we, the Catholic Church in England, do from our 
hearts believe it, we do not forget that it is a human 



CHAP. VI.] 



TRADITION. 



137 



expression of divine truth, and as a human expres- 
sion it may err ; and we have no apostolical autho- 
rity to prescribe it as the terms of salvation. We 
regard it, therefore, more as a hymn than as a creed ; 
we employ it only in occasional services, for great 
festivals ; because we do not like to familiarize the 
minds of Christians with minute, subtle speculations, 
lest thev regard the great mysteries of Almighty God 
as a subject for human intellect to exercise itself upon, 
instead of humbly and practically adoring them. 
We do not turn, when we repeat it, to the East, as we 
do when we repeat the other creeds. And all this, 
as I said before, from our reverence for the pure 
word of God as it has come dow r n to us traditionally 
from the Apostles, and from distrust of mere human 
reasoning. 

The Brahmin seemed pleased with this explanation. 

And yet, I said to the Missionary, both you and the 
Brahmin himself, if he will examine the Athanasian 
Creed or hymn, must observe that it was not drawn 
up wantonly and curiously by a mind restlessly 
speculating on revealed truth, and dissatisfied till 
he could reduce it all to the standard of his own 
comprehension. If the Brahmin supposes this, he 
may well think it irreverent in spirit, and an encou- 
ragement to similar irreverence in others. It was 
the evil mind of heretics who proposed various w r ays 
to pervert and depart from the apostolical doctrine — 
and w T ho abused their own intellect to find out its 
difficulties*, and to smooth away its revealed mysteries, 
which compelled the Church, who would maintain 
that truth in its integrity, to state it unwillingly and 
tremblingly, in a more precise and technical form. 
Had there been no heresies, there would have been no 
Athanasian Creed. The Church has ahvays con- 
demned and discouraged any presumptuous intrusion 
of human reason into the secret things which belong 

n 3 



138 



TRADITION". 



[CHAP. VI. 



unto our God ; and upon heretics, not upon her, 
must be thrown the censure, if any be deserved. 
The Missionary acquiesced. 

And you will observe also, I said, that in the 
Athanasian Creed, scrutinizing and precise as it 
seems, there is no attempt to explain anything. It 
is a statement or declaration, not an explanation. 
That it is so commonly considered mysterious and 
unintelligible, and therefore objectionable, is a proof of 
this. Had it been the creation of human reason, it 
would have been easy to be understood — it would con- 
tain no mystery. For human reason abhors mystery. It 
clears away all difficulties, it reconciles all contradic- 
tions, it reduces all its statements to some one simple 
and uniform law. It will neither admit doubt in itself, 
nor in its hearers. It never demands faith in them, 
but the assent of their understanding. If they offer 
to believe, without being able to comprehend and to 
explain what they hear, they are treated as children, 
worthy only of contempt. Therefore it never ven- 
tures to propound what it cannot make intelligible ; 
still less to threaten with the severest punishment 
those who do not accept its decisions. Now listen to 
the Athanasian Creed, and think if it be possible that 
such doctrines should be so propounded, if they had 
been invented by human reason. 

You shall place it before me another time, said 
the Brahmin ; for I have already heard much that 
I wish to think upon and remember. 



CHAP. VII.] 



ATH AN ASIAN CREED. 



139 



CHAPTER VII. 

Do you understand, I said to the Missionary, when 
we met again the next morning under the same tree, 
why I wished to place before the Brahmin a general 
view, rather of the system of the Church externally, 
than of its peculiar doctrines — to speak to him first 
of her ministry, her rule of faith, her creeds and 
sacraments, and hereafter, if he will allow me, of her 
discipline and history — of those points, I say, which 
are so generally considered mere questions of form, 
before we proceed to the more vital and affecting 
motives of Christian love and gratitude ? 

I will confess, said the Missionary, that I do not ; 
and I should be disposed as before to find fault with 
your method. 

I do it, I replied, because, as I before said, all 
evidence of the kind which we are now discussing 
must be addressed to the intellect ; and because I 
wish to fix his attention on the true intellectual 
ground of his belief, which must be historical testi- 
mony ; and because the value of this historical testi- 
mony must to him mainly depend on the personal 
character of the witness, of which he himself can 
judge. And unhappily many elements in this per- 
sonal character, which might have great weight with 
him, such as personal holiness, self-denial, deep and 
fervent piety, ardent love both to God and man, which 
would attract and make him believe, through his affec- 
tions only, are not yet set before him in this country 
so visibly and clearly in the conduct of Christians 
as we will hope they one day may be. There is 
therefore little left but to bring before him the sys- 
tem of the Church, as a witness whose intellectual 
capacity and willingness to tell the truth may be fairly 



140 



ATHANAS1AN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



examined and sifted. And I think the remarks 
which we made at the close of our conversation 
yesterday, when applied to the Athanasian Creed, will 
make it appear a very strong evidence of the credibility 
of the testimony of the Church — not, remember, to 
the internal truth of its doctrines, (for this the Church 
does not so much witness to you as to herself in her 
own heart,) but to the fact of their being received 
from God, that is from Christ through the Apostles, 
and from the Apostles through those various societies 
winch they founded in different parts of the world. 
You know for instance, I said, the first words of 
that creed or hymn. 

Yes, said the Missionary ; and I have often thought 
they sounded fearful and perplexing. " Whosoever 
will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he 
hold the Catholic faith ; which faith, except every 
one do keep whole and undented, without doubt he 
shall perish everlastingly." 

Your feeling respecting it, I said, is shared, I fear, 
by many, less likely to speak as you do, reverently 
and modestly. Let us see if in these very words 
there is not a remarkable attestation to the truth of 
the Church's commission from the Most High. 

How ? asked the Brahmin. It seems to me little 
more than a harsh denunciation of all who differ 
from you, such as may be found in the practice of 
many other religions which you would not allow to 
be true. 

In the first place then, I said, will you compare 
such denunciations with those in the creed before us ? 
They are usually (are they not ?) invectives against 
the ignorance, or the folly, or the wickedness of those 
who do not subscribe to our own opinions, coupled with 
the threat or prognostic that they would suffer for it 
in this world by human means. The threat in the 
Athanasian Creed is one which no human being could 
dare to denounce unless in the firm conviction, 



CHAP. VII.] ATHANASIAN CREED. 



141 



whether justified or not I do not here inquire, that he 
was authorized to do so by God. To limit the mer- 
cies of an Almighty and most merciful Father, whom 
the same Church represents as the Creator and Pre- 
server of all mankind, as desiring that his Gospel 
should be preached to all mankind, as "not desiring 
the death of the sinner, but rather that he should be 
converted and live,'' — to represent him as inexorably 
requiring of his blind and ignorant children the belief 
in most perplexing mysteries, without which belief 
they should not be admitted into heaven, seems a 
strange inconsistency ; and so men feel it to be ; for 
this is one of the chief faults which they complain of in 
the Athanasian Creed. They use the words which the 
Church so delights to repeat, " The memorial of 
thine abundant kindness shall be showed, and men 
shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious 
and merciful : long suffering, and of great goodness. 
The Lord is loving unto every man, and his mercy is 
over all his works." 1 The Lord is full of compas- 
sion and mercy, long suffering, and of great goodness ; 
He will not always be chiding, neither keepeth he his 
anger for ever; He hath not dealt with us after our 
sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses. 
For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the 
earth, so great is his mercy also toward them that 
fear him. Look how wide also the east is from the 
west, so far hath he set our sins from us. Yea, like 
as a father pitieth his own children, " even so is the 
Lord merciful unto them that fear him. For he knoweth 
whereof we are made, he remembereth that we are but 
dust." And when they thus think of the infinite good- 
ness of God, they cannot understand that be should 
make the reception of what they call certain mysterious 
theological dogmas a necessary condition of salva- 
tion. And these are men who boast of human reason. 

1 Psaim cxlv. 7, 8, 9, Prayer Book Version. 
2 Psalm ciii. 8, &c. 



142 



ATH AN ASIAN CREED. [CHAP. VII. 



If human reason therefore had produced the Athana- 
sian Creed, probably it would not have stumbled on 
this obvious and palpable inconsistency to human eyes : 
it would have represented salvation as attainable by 
some other means, or as dependent on a very different 
condition. And yet the Church for 1500 years has 
not scrupled to declare both the infinite mercy of her 
God, and the necessity of a rigid maintenance of her 
doctrines under the penalty of eternal death. I can 
understand this, if both doctrines have been received 
by her, and if neither of them were invented by her- 
self ; but on no other supposition is it intelligible. 

You think then, said the Brahmin, that a rigid and 
pertinacious adherence to self-evident inconsistencies 
is a proof of a, divine mission. 

You state my meaning, I replied, in rather a start- 
ling form ; but assuredly if a man does, as you say, 
rigidly and pertinaciously, and at the risk of his life, 
declare his belief in two seemingly inconsistent state- 
ments, which he sees to be at first sight inconsistent — 
if he does this at the very time that he wishes, and 
is using efforts to induce me to believe his statement, 
the greater and more palpable the inconsistency, the 
more 1 should be inclined, to believe that he was only 
communicating to me what he had received from 
another. 

Forgive me, said the Brahmin, if I seemed to speak 
contemptuously or sneeringly. I know this is not the 
spirit in which we ought to examine any truth ; but I 
had heard others ridicule such a principle ; and some- 
times without intending it, even the evil which we 
disapprove we imitate, when we have been thrown 
in its way. 

I am sure, I replied, from what I have seen, that 
you are not a person to speak unbecomingly or with 
levity of religion, in whatever form it may be pre- 
sented to you. Think therefore over the principle 
which I have suggested; for it seems to me of large 



CHAP. VII.] ATH AN ASIAN CREED. 



143 



application. It does not include the case of rash, 
careless inconsistencies, which the moment the 
speaker perceives he will be desirous to rectify ; 
but of declarations deliberately placed side by side ; of 
which the speaker professes not either to have or to 
ofTer a solution; and of which he rather deprecates 
any attempts at solution, on the ground that they in- 
trude on questions placed above the human understand- 
ing. Of such declarations the witness of the Church 
is full ; and the Athanasian Creed is only one of many 
remarkable instances. For instance, it proceeds — 
" And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one 
God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity ; neither con- 
founding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. 
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the 
Son, and another of the Holy Ghost ; but the God- 
head of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost 
is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal." 
And again : tc The Father (is) eternal, the Son eter- 
nal, and the Holy Ghost eternal, and yet they are 
not three eternals, but one eternal." And again: 
" So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy 
Ghost is God ; and yet they are not three Gods, but one 
God." And again : " For like as we are compelled by 
the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by 
himself to be God and Lord ; so are we forbidden by the 
Catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three 
Lords." Again: " The Father is made of none, neither 
created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, 
not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy 
Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor 
created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one 
Father, not three Fathers ; one Son, not three Sons ; 
one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this 
Trinity none is afore or after other, none is greater or 
less than another; but the whole three Persons are 
co-eternal together, and co-equal." And again of the 
person of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ : " For the 



144 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



right faith is that we believe and confess that our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man : 
God, of the substance of his Father, begotten before 
the worlds : and man, of the substance of his mother, 
born in the world ; perfect God and perfect man : of 
a reasonable soul, and human flesh subsisting ; equal 
to the Father, as touching his Godhead ; and inferior 
to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who al- 
though he be God and man, yet he is not two, but 
one Christ." 

These are but portions of this noble hymn or creed, 
which you should read, the whole of it, attentively. 
I will, said the Brahmin. 

And you will rise up from it, I said, with three 
convictions : — One, that it does present at the first 
sight a number of apparently contrary statements. 
The second, that it places them closely side by side, 
with the full consciousness of their apparent inconsis- 
tency, and without any attempt to reconcile or ex- 
plain them. Thirdly, that it does this not from care- 
lessness, not from any want of logical acuteness ; for 
nothing can be more anxiously weighed and guarded 
than the language employed — the nicest distinctions 
are drawn, and the greatest pains taken to prevent any 
confusion of terms. I ask under what deep sense of re- 
sponsibility was this creed drawn up ? Why all this fear 
and caution ? Why this desire to assert what it could 
not explain ? Why this seemingly subtle metaphysical 
analysis, terminating, not as the operations of mere 
human reason must terminate, in some one intelligible 
formula or cause, from which all others are evolved, 
but in balanced, unproved, binary statements ; that is, 
in statements which recognise the existence of two 
seemingly opposite principles, neither of which is 
permitted to trespass on, or to absorb the other ? Is it, I 
ask, like a work of the human understanding, pur- 
suing its own free course, and declaring the result of 
its own inquiries ? Or is it the careful, thoughtful de- 



CHAP. VII.] ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 



145 



livery of a solemn message, composed of several parts, 
not one of which is to be permitted to slip from its 
place, but all are to be preserved and delivered to men 
exactly as they were received from God ? 

Certainly, said the Brahmin, it is more like to the 
latter. 

And when you know the history of the Church, I 
said, and find that this creed was drawn up for the 
very purpose of meeting the assaults of a curious 
reason upon the then received Christian doctrine 
— that these double statements had appeared so con- 
tradictory to men of acute, speculative minds, that 
they exerted themselves in every mode to explain them 
away, and to remove the difficulty, and thus compelled 
the Church to define and distinguish more formally 
than she would otherwise have done — you will not 
say that it originated in human reason. For how 
could reason oppose .reason ? How could the Church 
dare to prohibit the use of an instrument which she 
was employing herself? How could she have said to 
those whom she opposed, " You must not speculate 
logically on the mysteries of the divine nature ; vou 
must not presume to examine the connexion between 
our declarations, or to reduce them into conformity 
with your own understanding; 55 if at the same time the 
declarations she put forth herself were founded on such 
a process, and were attested only by her own under- 
standing? No, my friends : if she had received them 
from another, and undertook to guard them as a 
treasure, which she was permitted to enjoy and to com- 
municate, but could not allow to be injured even in 
the slightest point, then indeed she might prohibit 
others from doing that which she had never done 
herself, and never intended to do. In any other way 
this was impossible. 

I understand you perfectly, said the Brahmin. 

And if, in thus drawing her lines of distinction, 

PART I. O 



146 



ATHANASIAN CREED. [CHAP. VII. 



she appealed not to her own judgment, but to that 
which had been delivered by generations before her, 
and was delivered at that time by numerous indepen- 
dent bodies, not too intimately connected with each 
other, this would be a still farther proof that she con- 
templated no appeal to her own reason. 

You mean, said the Brahmin, that the faith which 
the creed speaks of is what you call Catholic faith, or 
that held generally by the Church. 

I do, I replied. And I think also there is some- 
thing remarkable in this which follows. For when you 
read the Bible, you will find that a mere intellectual 
belief or knowledge is never spoken of as of any 
value or goodness in the sight of God. The Bible 
again and again warns us against any confidence in 
human reason. " Beware lest any man spoil you 
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradi- 
tion of men (that is, after teaching handed down, not 
by men as the instruments of conveying it, but from 
men as the origin and inventors of it), after the rudi- 
ments of the wo - -d, and not after Christ." 1 " Know- 
ledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any 
man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth 
nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man 
love God, the same is known of him." 2 " Though I 
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass 
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift 
of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all 
knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am 
nothing." 3 And so the declaration of our Lord, " Not 
every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
will of my Father which is in heaven." 4 And so 

1 Col. ii. 8. 2 1 Cor. viii. 1. 3 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 

4 Matt. vii. 21. 



CHAP. VII.] 



ATHANASIAN CREED, 



147 



throughout the Bible, and the system of the Church, 
you will find that the " end of the command- 
ment is love and obedience — love to God, earnest, 
hearty, and zealous, swallowing up all thought of 
self; and venting itself in love to man, and in labour 
for the glory of our Lord in obedience to his will. 
Xcw feelings like these in man are rarely cool and 
reflecting; they make us (and I will ask the question 
of the good Missionary, who will yield to few in the 
degree in which he possesses them) — they make us 
careless of forms, indifferent to nice distinctions, 
willing to compromise seeming subtleties, provided 
we can secure energy and warmth of heart. Men do 
not draw up Athanasian Creeds, nor prescribe nice 
formularies of faith, as terms of salvation, when they 
are burning with zeal and affection, and desirous of 
engaging every mind which they can reach in one 
great, holy, and absorbing cause. But when you 
read the history of the Church, you will find that the 
times when the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene 
Creed were drawn up, were periods of peculiar reli- 
gious excitement. Everything was full of ferment, and 
anxiety, and contention. There seemed a battle 
raging between those who attacked the old traditional 
system of Christian doctrine, and those who defended 
it. And the same may be said of the time when the 
system of the Church of England was settled in its 
present form. There was every temptation to the 
ardent minds engaged in such a struggle to forget the 
rigid lines of Christian doctrine, and to sacrifice pre- 
cision and exactness to zeal and devotion. And so, 
to go back to the Apostles themselves, they also ex- 
hibit the highest degree of fervour and enthusiasm in 
the cause of the Church, and yet they never become 
insensible to the necessity of guarding the truth. All 
with one voice proclaim— " Above all things it is ne- 
cessary that we hold the Catholic faith." Does this, I 

• o 2 



148 



ATH AN ASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



ask again, resemble, or not, the conduct of one who is 
guarding a deposit committed to him by God? 
It does, said the Brahmin. 

And you remember, I said, that we before allowed 
the importance of truth as the basis of all goodness ; 
that no religion and no morality can exist unless we 
have correct views of the relations in w r hich w 7 e stand 
to the beings to whom we owe our duties; and that 
those relations must be stated carefully and accu- 
rately, otherwise we shall be misled in our conduct. 
For instance, the affection of a child to his father is 
one thing, and that to his step-father is another ; to 
the benefactor w T ho saves his life so much is due, and 
to him w ? ho preserves his fortune so much less. If 
one man possess such and such an amount of goodness, 
learning, or power, we owe to him so much reverence ; 
and precisely as his goodness or learning increases, 
our reverence ought to increase likewise. And before 
we can settle what is right or wrong in our conduct, 
in all such cases, we must define, as accurately as we 
can, the precise nature of the benefit received, and the 
character of the party who conferred it. 

We must, said the Brahmin. 

And therefore, I continued, addressing the Mis- 
sionary, there must be creeds in morals as much as 
in religion ; that is, there must be accurate and pre- 
cise statements of the relations in which w r e stand to 
other persons, and in which those persons stand to 
each other, before we can be even ordinarily virtuous. 

The Missionary acknowledged it. 

And the men, or bodies of men, who should assert 
this strongly, and adhere to it rigidly, would not be 
acting as wild enthusiasts, but as sound thinking 
men ; whether they acted by their own conviction and 
penetration, or by the wisdom of some other authority 
whom they obeyed, and in obeying wiiom they showed 
their own wisdom. 



CHAP. VII.] AT HAN AS I AN CREED. 



149 



He assented. 

The Church therefore is not an enthusiast in de- 
claring that above all things it is necessary to hold 
some faith or another. Whether the faith which 
she propounds be the true one is another question, 
which the Brahmin will only be able to answer for 
himself by comparing it with the traditional records 
of the Catholic Church, and chiefly with the Scrip- 
tures. And yet the very appeal to the Catholic 
Church, as we said before, strongly argues that the 
faith here put forward is Catholic ; for otherwise it 
might easily be shown to be false at the time of its 
promulgation, and would have been condemned by 
the very voice of its own authors. 

Neither may it be an enthusiast, I continued, in 
declaring " This is the Catholic faith, which except a 
man believe faithfully he cannot be saved." 

And yet, said the Missionary, it seems to me a hard 
saying, and at variance even with that which you 
before asserted, that no belief was required by the 
Church in admitting men to baptism beyond the 
Apostles' Creed. 

The Brahmin seemed to feel the same difficulty; 
and I answered therefore at once, though it led me 
rather from the line wdrich I had intended to pursue. 

We must bear in mind, I said, the following 
things : First, that the statements in the Athanasian 
Creed are no new additions to the Apostles' Creed, 
but only the formal expression of truths previously 
implied in it. If I grant a person a favour on con- 
dition of his giving me a hundred pounds, he would 
not be released from his promise by finding that he 
could only pay me this round sum in different and 
several payments of five, ten, twenty, fifty, eight, and 
seven pounds : in paying me these sums separately, 
he would only be fulfilling his original contract. Or, if 
I purchase a house and all that it contains, whether I 

o 3 



150 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



describe it thus briefly and comprehensively, or enu- 
merate separately all the materials of the roof and 
walls, all the distinct parts and articles of furniture 
and decoration, it matters little. 

Secondly, the Apostles' Creed must be intended to 
convey one, and one only true meaning. And when 
those to whom it is taught may be inclined to adopt some 
other meaning (for words, we know, however carefully 
constructed, can never be secured from misinterpre- 
tation), then it would be absolutely necessary that the 
Church, to whom not only the outward words, but the 
true meaning of them was intrusted, should come 
forward to declare what that meaning is. This she 
has done in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, which 
are only statements of the sense in which the Apo- 
stles' Creed is to be received — statements made only 
for the purpose of guarding against notorious errors. 
Do you comprehend this ? ! 

I do, said the Brahmin. 

And if it pleased Almighty God to declare that no 
one should be admitted into the Christian fellowship, 
and so be saved, unless he accepted and believed in 
the Apostles' Creed, he must also have intended that 
no one should have this privilege, unless he accepted it 
in its true sense ; for merely to repeat words is nothing. 
And therefore the Church is as much authorized to 
declare that no man can be saved unless he holds, the 
Catholic faith, as expressed in the Athanasian Creed, 
as in excluding them from baptism if they will not 
subscribe to the Apostles'. 

But how then, said the Brahmin, does the Church 
know that the Athanasian Creed is the true meaning 
of the Apostles ? 

She knows it, I said, as she knows that the Apo- 
stles' Creed came from an apostolical source — that the 
Bible was delivered to them by messengers from 
Christ — that many of her ceremonies and practices are 



CHAP. VII.] A T H A N ASIA N CREED. 



151 



retained on the same apostolical authority ; because 
she finds historical testimony to the fact that such 
interpretations of the Creed, and such Scriptures, and 
such ceremonies, have been uniformly received and 
transmitted in the numerous independent churches 
which the Apostles founded. She knows it by the 
Catholic testimony of the Church, and she confirms 
it by Scripture. And if you will not receive her inter- 
pretation of the Apostles' Creed upon this testimony, 
neither will you receive the creed itself upon the 
same : you will distrust the messengers of God : 
and he who distrusts them, when they speak only as 
they are commanded, cannot be saved, for he can- 
not join himself to their society. He has not faith : 
he will reject their authority and their mission. And 
here also, I said, shall I point out another sign that 
their mission is from God ? 
They both assented. 

Consider then, I said, these three cases. One per- 
son comes to you demanding your belief in a certain 
form of words, but without being able to tell you 
which, among a variety of meanings imputed to them, 
is the one true and intended. And another demands 
your belief in a number of statements only partially 
received from others, and several of them originating 
with himself, and he annexes the condition that vou 
must give your assent and obedience to every opinion 
which he may at any time put forth. And a third 
comes requiring your assent to a short simple state- 
ment, and prepared, if you are at any time perplexed 
with it, or misunderstand it, to give you from authority 
an explicit declaration of the true meaning ; and he 
limits his demand upon your belief, or, if you choose so to 
call it, on your credulity, to this point — allowing you on 
all beyond to exercise considerable freedom of thought. 
Which of these will appear to you most judicious 
and discreet, and least interested in claiming your 
confidence? 



152 



AT H ANA SI AN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



The last, certainly, said the Brahmin. 

This then, I said, is the position of the Church to 
which I belong. The Dissenter may bring you the 
Apostles' Creed, but if he rejects the Athanasian 
Creed, and generally allows of no human interpreta- 
tion of the Apostles' Creed, he must permit you to put 
upon it any interpretation that you like ; and cannot 
prevent the most opposite opinions from being held, 
seemingly with equal credibility, under the same form 
of words. And Romanism, not content with asking 
your belief to the Apostles' Creed, has added to her 
terms of salvation other articles, not known in the early 
Catholic Church ; and besides this lays claim to an in- 
fallibility which requires you to believe in every asser- 
tion which she has made, or may make at any time. 
But the true Church Catholic, to the English branch of 
which I belong, gives you the Apostles' Creed — gives 
you the right meaning of it in the Nicene and Athanasian 
Creeds — confines her demand on your belief (so far as 
salvation is concerned) to these articles — and although 
she still would guide and aid you in the study of the 
Scriptures, and will strive to lead you into all truth, 
she does not require that you should believe her to be 
free, in such additional subjects, from the possibility of 
error, nor places you blindly under bondage to her 
arbitrary judgment. And this, I think, is not only a 
ground for preference of her before other communions, 
but intrinsically an evidence of her truth. 

How ? asked the Missionary. 

In several ways, I answered. For if she be a mes- 
senger sent from God, bearing his message, and sent 
for the purpose of teaching and building up Gods 
children in the faith, as well as of laying it at first 
before them, it is natural that, by the providence of 
God, she should be placed in possession of the right in- 
terpretation of the creed, as well as of the creed 
itself. If I want nothing but the delivery of a mes- 
sage, I place the message in the hand of a servant 



CHAP. VII.] ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 



153 



who probably knows nothing of its nature; and it is 
enough that he leave it with the party. But if that 
party be weak and ignorant, and will require instruc- 
tion in the right understanding of the message, I 
should wish to supply the messenger with a key to it, 
just as the Church possesses the Athauasian Creed as 
a key to the Apostles' Creed. Now you cannot deny 
that the men to whom Christianity is addressed are 
ignorant and fallible, and require instruction ; nor 
that the office of the Church is to instruct them when 
brought into her bosom, as well as to bring them into 
it at first. And yet, when Dissenters undertake this 
office of instruction, they find themselves destitute of 
any authoritative rule to guide them in this indispen- 
sable task, and are compelled either to leave every one 
to his own fancy, or to invent a rule for themselves, 
without any sanction from the Catholic Church, or any 
security for its being permanent or general. 

Again : that the Church, while she does thus insist 
on her right to adduce an interpretation of the creed, 
as well of the creed itself, should nevertheless set 
bounds to her own power, and denv her own right to 
change or enlarge this interpretation once received, 
argues not only her moderation, and the absence of 
self-conceit or self-interest, but also her full convic- 
tion that the interpretation which she does give is 
sanctioned by the highest authority ; and this gives 
still further weight to her declaration, " He therefore 
that would be saved must thus think." For, acknow* 
ledging, as she does, her incompetency to prescribe other 
terms of salvation than those appointed by God him- 
self, when she does prescribe any, it must be with 
caution, and carefulness, and after due inquiry; and 
we ought to listen to her with the same solemn reve- 
rence as she exhibits herself. 

But, said the Brahmin, I do not see why. if the 
Athanasian Creed be only an expanded statement of 
truths already contained in the Apostles' Creed, does 



154 



ATH AN ASIAN CREED. [CHAP. VI f. 



not the Church use the larger statement at once in 
her Baptismal service ? This would seem the more 
rational course, and would prevent the chance of error 
creeping in after the reception of the Apostles' Creed. 

It would, I said, seem more rational in our eyes. 
Such would he the natural conduct of persons acting as 
mere men ; but from the very fact that the Church 
has not acted so, we might be disposed to infer, that 
she regulated her practice rather by a rule appointed 
to her from without, than by her own considerations 
of expediency or propriety. And it is this feature in 
her character which I wish to place prominently 
before you, because it is the most obvious signification 
of a messenger from God. The Church then does 
not employ the Athanasian Creed in baptism, but the 
Apostles', because the Apostles', or forms of the same 
extent and nature, was the creed so used Catholically 
in the ancient Church : this with her is reason sufficient. 
If God had willed that his terms of salvation should 
be laid before man in the technical, discriminating, and 
seemingly subtle form of the Athanasian Creed, this 
we should be bound to use : but we know from the 
Catholic testimony of the Church it was not so ; and 
if we might venture humbly to trace the reasons for 
the dealings of God with man, we might find many 
why it should not be so. 

What are they ? asked the Brahmin. 

It is, I said, a distinctive peculiarity of our Gospel, 
that it is to be preached to the poor ; its promises 
and blessings are to be offered, not, like systems of 
human philosophy, to the wdse and learned, to men of 
mature age and cultivated reason, but to the ignorant, 
the weak, the young, to all mankind : this in itself is 
a miracle — it is one of the many signs that it comes 
from God. Our blessed Lord referred to it in the 
prophecies respecting him, as a sign on a par with his 
other extraordinary miracles. 

Yes, said the Missionary, and he opened his Bible, 



CHAP. VII.] AT HAN ASIAN CREED. 



155 



which he carried with him. " Then Jesus answering, 
said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things 
ye have seen and heard ; how that the blind see, the 
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the 
dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." 1 
And again, " In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and 
said, I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 2 
And again, " And they brought young children to 
him, that he should touch them : and his disciples re- 
buked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw 
it he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say 
unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And 
he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon 
them, and blessed them. 55 3 

Yes, I continued, and many more passages you 
might collect to the same purpose. There is indeed a 
wisdom and a mystery in Christianity which surpasses 
the depth of all human philosophies, solving questions 
which they could only propound, giving light on sub- 
jects where they have found only darkness, and lead- 
ing on the human reason step by step, from strength 
to strength, till it reach the highest of all truths, and 
repose in the very sanctuary of all wisdom. This the 
Brahmin may learn hereafter ; and he may find that 
the Gospel also has its philosophy. But it is the 
mercy of Almighty God to bring this down to all men, 
so far as it can contribute to their happiness and good- 
ness ; and therefore, as under the authority of Christ 
and his Apostles we bring young children to him, and 



1 Luke vii. 22. 2 Luke x. 21. 3 Mark x. 13, 



155 



ATHANASIAN CREED? 



[chap. VII. 



baptize them before their intellect is opened or 
matured ; and as we preach the Gospel to the poor, and 
find among them numbers who, by the grace of God's 
Holy Spirit, receive his word gladly, and are willing to 
become disciples of Christ, and members of his 
Church ; as we have no authority for excluding from 
that Church any man, however unlearned, if the Holy 
Spirit has touched his heart ; and as that Holy Spirit 
we believe to be the true and 'only source of all wis- 
dom, and to be able to minister it of himself in his 
own good pleasure to those who love and obey him — for 
all these reasons it is both reasonable to offer, and a 
blessing that we are permitted to-'offer, admission into 
the Church of Christ, and the kingdom of God, upon 
the reception of a short, simple, and intelligible form 
of belief, without perplexing the minds of converts 
with checks and forewarnings against all those possible 
errors which may spring up in their minds when they 
come to expand and apply it. We place them under 
the teaching of the Church, and trust that humble, 
faithful hearts, striving to do their duty practically, 
and abstaining from vain, idle speculations, will be 
kept, by the guiding of God's spirit within them, safe 
from any fatal error. Think how sad it would be either 
to perplex such young and tender minds with the nice 
and refined distinctions of an elaborate theology, or to 
be left destitute of such authorized distinctions, when 
the subtlety of man had rendered it necessary to dis- 
criminate between truth and error. There have been 
men who, in their desire to simplify the knowledge of 
religion, and to render it accessible to all, have been 
willing to smooth away its difficulties, and to obliterate 
its boundary lines : there have been others, who, in their 
zeal for truth and intellectual dogmatism, have for- 
gotten the pity and indulgence due to imperfect na- 
tures, and would impose truth in its harshest and most 



CHAP. VII. j ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 



157 



perplexing form upon minds yet unable to receive it. 
The Catholic Church does neither ; she feeds her 
young with milk, her old with meat. 1 

And this, said the Brahmin, is the practice of our own 
religion, We reserve our higher truths for our sages, 
and place religion before the people in the form which 
they can easily comprehend. 

Alas ! my friend, I replied, have you not forgotten 
one difference ? Are the truths which you reserve for 
your sages, and the religion which you teach to your 
people, one and the same ? Are your deeper mysteries 
nothing more than the expansion and developement of 
your popular doctrines? Are they not widely differ- 
ent ? Does not the true creed of your Vedas declare 
that God is one, and your popular creed that he is 
many? Do not your sages believe that he is a spirit, 
free from all taint of sinful flesh, and your people that he 
is polluted with the vices, and pleased with the sins of his 
worshippers ? Do not your sages seek him, where only 
he can be found, in the pure deep essence of his own 
illimitable perfection ; and your people worship him in 
idols of wood and stone ? No, my friend, dare not to 
compare the indulgence shown by your system for 
the poor and ignorant, with the tender compassion 
of Christ for the lambs of his fold. We never forget 
the truth. What the sage holds with us, the poorest 
must hold likewise : he worships but the same God in 
the same spirit, and the same truth : we indulge him 
in no licence of fancy : we make no compromise — no 
concession even to his weakness. The moment he 
wanders into error, we check and chasten him ; only 
we do not involve him in premature precautions against 
errors — errors which rise too often from temptations 
to which he may never be exposed, and which we trust 



PART I. 



1 Cor. iii. 2. 



P 



15S 



AT HAN ASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



to guard him from as his spiritual education proceeds, 
by the warnings aud lessons of his teachers, far better 
than by the words of a formulary, however accurately 
constructed. Here again think if we act as messen- 
gers and ministers of God, intrusted with the preserva- 
tion and communication of his blessed truth, and not 
daring to alter an iota in it. 

I do confess, said the Brahmin, that the cases are 
not the same. 

They are not, I said; and you will remember this 
when you are induced to listen to the representations 
of Roman Catholic Christians; for they also have 
two systems, one for the poor, and another for the 
learned. And the poor they allow, like you, in many 
perversions of the truth ; because they think that re- 
ligion is thus brought more closely to their minds. 
Ask them if they are as zealous for the pure, simple 
truth of the Gospel in the uneducated as in the 
educated, in the peasant as in the prince ; and if they 
are not, if they are willing to allow practices, and to over- 
look errors, and to extenuate superstitions in the one 
from which they profess to preserve the other free — 
ask them if this be like a messenger from God, whose 
truth cannot be changed, and whose nature abhors a 
lie, even for an end of good. 

Sir, said the Missionary, I cannot but agree in 
much that you have said ; and yet there appears to 
be an inconsistencv between the care with which you 
deprecate any admixture of human notions with the 
revealed word of God, and the imposition by your 
church of her Thirty-nine Articles. They, surely, 
are human ; and yet you make them the terms of your 
communion, and put them forth as your profession of 
faith. 

I know, I replied, that such is the opinion too 
generally entertained of them, but by persons who are 



CHAP. VII.] 



ATH AN ASIAN CREED. 



159 



not aware of their real nature and intention. You do 
not find that we substitute the Thirty-nine Articles for 
the Apostles 5 Creed at baptism ; do we ? 

I believe not, said the Missionary. 

No, I said ; and therefore our Articles are not made 
by us terms of salvation. We have not enlarged or 
multiplied those conditions which the Apostles of 
Christ, in his name, thought sufficient to admit Chris- 
tians into the kingdom of their Lord. Neither, I said, 
do we require that all the members of our church should 
subscribe them. They are not therefore with u s 
terms of communion. The subscription to them is 
confined to the clergy, and to those who are more im- 
mediately connected with the work of education in the 
church. And they were drawn up as guides and checks 
to the clergy in their teaching, that they might not fall 
into errors, which were abounding at the time of their 
construction. Here again, I said to the Brahmin, 
observe the care and vigilance of the church in guard- 
ing what she believes to be truth. Had her doctrines 
been invented by herself, she must have permitted to 
others the same licence of reasoning and thinking as 
she herself had claimed and exercised. She could not 
build a system upon human reason with one hand, 
and attack and proscribe it with the other. And if 
her object were simply power, she would be content 
— like the Roman Catholic, and other hierarchical 
systems, whose end was ambition — to insist only on 
obedience, absolute and uncompromising obedience, to 
the priesthood, and care little for truth. But the great 
end of the true Catholic church is truth. And though 
the church in England drew up her articles by herself, 
and framed her declaration of doctrine to meet only 
those errors with which she was herself attacked, she 
never permitted herself to frame a creed, or to pronounce 
opinions, which were not consonant to the teaching 
of the church of old. She kept this restraint upon 

p 2 



160 



AT H ANAS! AN CREED. 



[CHAP. VII. 



herself, confirming what she asserted both by the 
Scriptures, and by appeals to the " old Catholic church" 
and " Catholic fathers" who lived previous to the growth 
of those errors against which in popery she was 
obliged to protest. And, cautious and humble even 
in the exercise of this undoubted right, she did not 
impose the reception of her declarations upon all her 
children, but simply on her clergy and teachers, that 
through their means the rest of her fold might be saved 
from straying. Is this, I ask, a sign of thoughtful- 
ness and moderation : does it commend to you the 
spirit of the church of England as an earnest, faithful, 
and sober-minded witness to divine truth, which is all 
that I now wish to suggest ? 
The Missionary was silent. 

And from whence, then, said the Brahmin, did 
your church derive these doctrines and opinions which 
you call your articles ? Were they merely expansions 
of the creed, as the later creeds, according to your 
statement, were expansions of the first one? 

Not exactly, I said ; for they relate to many points 
which, if not extraneous to the creeds, are at least so 
deeply buried in them, that virtually it may seem the 
same as if they were distinct : for instance, the duty 
of the civil magistrate, the right meaning of the sacra- 
ments of the church, the doctrines of predestination ; 
all of which, of course, must be implied and connected 
in the creeds, since, ultimately, they must rest on 
those great doctrines of the nature of God which are the 
foundation of all Christianity. And yet the connexion 
can only be traced by deep thought and reasoning. 

From whence then were they drawn? asked the 
Brahmin. 

From that, I said, which is the first source and 
fountain of all Christian knowledge, beyond so much 
as is expressly contained in the creed — from the great 
treasure-house of divine wisdom— the Bible. Ob- 



CHAP. VII.] ATHAN ASIAN" CREED. 



161 



serve the distinction : the doctrines contained in the 
Apostles' and Nicene Creed we first learn in the 
creeds, a ndthe creeds come down to us as apostolical 
summaries, through the traditionary practice and tes- 
timony of the church. Tradition, therefore, if I may 
venture to use a word so frequently misunderstood, 
is the first channel of such doctrines ; and yet, you 
remember, it is a fundamental principle of the Catho- 
lic church that even these doctrines must be confirmed 
by Scripture ; that no evidence to the apostolical 
sanction to them may be omitted, and no door be 
opened to the corruption of them by human indolence 
or self-will. But all the Christian doctrine which 
lies beyond the articles of the creed must be derived 
to us, first from the Bible, and then be confirmed by 
the testimony of antiquity. 

You divide, then, said the Brahmin, your teaching 
into two parts ; that which is fundamental, and that 
which is less essential? 

We do, I said : the Apostles' Creed, interpreted by 
the Nicene and Athanasian, contains the former ; our 
Thirty-nine Articles, and all the other doctrinal in- 
struction which is necessary for the expansion of the 
truth and the improvement of life, contain the latter. 
But remember that this latter portion is not unessen- 
tial, looking to the fruits of a pure faith and a holy life 
such as becomes a Christian ; but we observe the dis- 
tinction, which Almighty God himself has pointed 
out, by making the articles of the Apostles' Creed, 
and none other, conditions of admission into his 
church . 

And the former, then, or essential articles, said the 
Brahmin, you derive first from tradition, and confirm 
by Scripture; and the second, or less essential, you 
derive first from Scripture, and then confirm by 
tradition ? 

We do, I said. 

p 3 



162 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



And why this difference ? said the Brahmin. 

It arises, I said, from the same jealous caution which 
I have wished again and again to point out to you as 
the characteristic of a faithful messenger from God, 
and therefore of a true Catholic church ; from a dread 
of mixing any human fancies with divine truth. All 
that the church would teach, she would teach as a 
minister of God conveying to man the truths which 
she herself has received from God, through the hands 
of our blessed Lord ; truths by him committed to his 
Apostles, and by his Apostles made known to the world. 
But the only mode by which we can discover the real 
teaching of the Apostles is, as I have so often said 
before, by the catholic testimony of the church; that 
is, let me repeat it again, by the concurrent voices of 
numerous distinct, independent societies, commu- 
nicating in Christian love, but not deriving their know- 
ledge immediately from one and the same source, nor 
pledging themselves to submit to any one individual 
human authority. And when these voices all declare 
that they have always received, and have retained as 
inviolable, one and the same form of doctrine, derived 
to them from different apostles, this we cannot doubt 
to have been the common doctrine of the whole apo- 
stolical body, to whom our Lord committed the preach- 
ing of his truth, and the foundation and government 
of his church. And if any doubt could exist, it is 
removed by finding the same doctrines alluded to, 
expressed, inculcated, and confirmed in writings which 
the same catholic testimony proves to have come from 
the same apostolical authority. Will you forgive me, 
I said to the Missionary, if I am repeating again and 
again the same explanation ? but of late years we 
have forgotten these facts, and it is only by frequent 
repetition that our minds can be familiarized to them 
again. 

The Missionary bowed. 



CHAP. TO.] 



ATH ANA SI A N CREED. 



163 



But, I continued, to prove that a doctrine is really 
apostolically handed down, we must show that it is 
found, not in one or two distinct places only, not sup- 
ported only by this or that great doctor, not main- 
tained only at some one period, how T ever near to apo- 
stolical times. This would not constitute a catholic or 
universal testimony. It must be sufficiently general, 
and uniform, and permanent, and ancient, to connect 
the practice or doctrine with the apostolical body. 
The exact amount of such testimony required it is 
not possible or necessary to fix. We employ such 
testimony every day in courts of justice to ascertain 
facts, bringing so many independent witnesses together 
to testify to what they have seen and heard : and we find 
no difficulty in reviewing, and scrutinizing, and acting 
on it, without any exact limits being previously laid 
down as to the number of witnesses required. And so 
with the testimony of the Catholic church. Xow to 
the creed, and some few important matters of church 
discipline and religious practice, such as the govern- 
ment of our church by a peculiar order, called bishops, 
the admission of infants to holy baptism, and the forms 
in which that holy ceremony is to be administered, 
and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to be con- 
secrated, we have an amount of testimony which can- 
not be doubted. We find these doctrines and practices 
adhered to everywhere, or omitted only by persons 
and parties who throw aside at the same time the 
principle of adhering strictly to what they had re- 
ceived, and whose views, therefore, are entitled to no 
deference with those who wish only to "know and to do 
what has been transmitted to them from God. 

In these cases, then, we take our belief first from 
tradition, and confirm it by Scripture. We cannot go 
to Scripture first, for that would imply that we had no 
previous rule laid down for us, whereas, even before 
Scripture was written, this rule existed; and there never 



164 



AT HAN ASIAN CREED. 



[chap. yii. 



was a time when it was dropped, and when Christians 
were left without it to draw one from the Bible by 
their own interpretation. And moreover, the very 
ground on which we rest our belief that the Scriptures 
come to us with apostolical authority, is this same 
catholic testimony, which, if valid for the apostolicity 
of the Scriptures, is valid for the apostolicity of all 
practices and doctrines confirmed in the same manner 
and to the same extent. Observe, I said to the Brah- 
min, that the church logically comprehends the laws 
of evidence, and would strictly adhere to them. 
The Brahmin assented. 

But, I said, wherever there is any failure in this 
catholic testimony ; wherever different churches have 
pronounced differently on questions, or have never 
pronounced at all ; where opinions are to be met and 
refuted, which, being of recent growth, had not been 
noticed in the ancient church ; where there are no 
means, from the failure of documents, to ascertain 
what the church of old thought or did ; or where 
some new conjuncture or study of Scripture may 
seem to elicit some fresh information as to the dis- 
pensation of Providence, either in regard to the mean- 
ing of prophecy, or to the interpretation of particular 
texts ; in all these cases the church, destitute of ca- 
tholic testimony to aposrolical truth, and yet anxious 
to discover and adhere to it, must look to the Scrip- 
tures first. This record of the Apostles' teaching, and 
of our Lord's still more, remains to her under all cir- 
cumstances ; and in them, therefore, she seeks for all 
the knowledge she requires beyond the creeds. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, words and interpreta- 
tions of words are full of doubt ; and how know you 
that mere human beings sitting down before a written 
document will decide rightly on its meaning? 

We know, I said, that words and interpretations of 
words are full of doubt ; and that human beings may 



CHAP. VII.] ATH AN ASIAN CREED. 



165 



err in their interpretation of Scripture ; and therefore, 
as we guard the oral tradition of doctrines against 
the corruption of men by requiring the confirmation 
of it by written documents, so we guard, not the 
Scriptures, which in their true sense need no guard- 
ing, and as inspired by God cannot err, but the 
human interpretation of Scripture against the fal- 
lacies of our own ignorance or evil heart, by requiring 
that such interpretation should be conformable to the 
doctrines of those men, who, as living in the early 
times of the church, were best acquainted with its 
teaching, who have transmitted to us copious works 
containing information on the opinions of those times, 
and whose wisdom, holiness, and experience have 
always commanded and deserved great deference 
from humble-minded Christians. This is what we 
mean by appealing to tradition and the fathers as 
interpreters of Scripture. We do not select this 
teacher, or that saint, as a man whose private opinion 
we are bound to follow ; nor any one period of the 
church as a model for our imitation, because it agrees 
with our own notions of what is expedient, or good, 
or true. This would be to create leaders of our own, 
and virtually to set up systems of our own, as men make 
idols which they may fall down to and worship. It 
would not be to adhere strictly to what we have received 
from God. But where many ancient teachers agree 
in expressing opinions, referring to them perhaps as 
being generally acknowledged — where their judgment 
generally has been revered and followed by those who 
are competent to attest their authority — there we think 
it wise and safe to lay great stress on their guidance ; 
and we revere them as we should revere any human 
being, in proportion to his goodness and wisdom, and 
specially as he seems to have been placed as a guide to 
us by the providence of God. We like, therefore, to 
support our interpretation of Scripture by the consent of 



166 



ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 



[chap. VII. 



" ancient bishops," " Catholic fathers," u ancient doc- 
tors," and the "primitive church," to whom you will 
find such abundant appeals made by the men who 
drew up our articles, and cleared away the corruptions 
of popery from the church in England. And yet, re- 
member, we apply them not to confirm the Scriptures,, 
for the Scriptures are the voice of God, and to do this 
would be to support a stronger by a weaker, a greater 
by a less; but to confirm our interpretation of Scrip- 
ture, which, so far as it is human, is fallible, and may 
err. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. 

And do you also understand, I said, that to act in 
this cautious way, with this reverence for antiquity, 
this self-distrust, this submission to the guidance of 
others, humble while it is manly, and zealous while 
it is discriminating, is a character not to be over- 
looked in those who come before you as messengers 
from God, bringing to you His truth ? It is not like 
one who takes up views of his own with conceit or 
enthusiasm. It argues no blind adoption of any 
one rule as agreeable to our own fancy, when in each 
case, of essentials and non-essentials, still a double 
witness is required and produced. He is not attached 
to a party, or carried away by temporary impulse, 
who steadily and honestly, and not merely in name, 
turns rather to the old for instruction and guidance 
than to the young, to the dead than to the living, to 
regularly appointedofficers than to self-chosen teachers. 
And he is not likely to deceive us for his own advan- 
tage who distinguishes carefully between his official 
and his private authority; who insists rigidly and 
uncompromisingly on the universal and unqualified 
reception of the truths which he brings from God, but 
leaves you free and unfettered in matters which he 
propounds of himself; who commands in one case, 
and only advises in the other; and who still in all 



CHAP. VII.] ATH AX ASIAN CREED. 



167 



his declarations strives to reach a rule without him — 
something to which he may conform his own opinions 
rather than conform it to them ; and who knowing well 
the deceitfulness of his own heart, his own ignorance, 
the ambiguity of words, the ease with which they may 
be turned and twisted, and pared down, and put to- 
gether so as to construct from them almost any meaning 
— therefore commences his work of interpretation with 
a lowly, reverent, and obedient spirit, emptied of self, 
and regarding only Him whose spirit fills the universal 
church, and whose truth may therefore be found most 
nearly in that which nearest approaches to the voice 
of that church. 

And this, said the Missionary, you believe to be 
the character of your own church ? 

I do, I replied, from my heart ; comparing it not 
only with those individuals, or bodies of men, who 
before this have promulgated their doctrines in the 
heathen world, but with the various sects and de- 
nominations of Christians themselves. But of this 
the Brahmin must judge by a comparison of their 
several principles and formularies. One, for instance, 
will confine its doctrines to the wise and learned; 
another will have a double doctrine, one for the poor 
and the other for the rich, and so contrived that 
the rich may always be able to govern the poor. 
Another will place men before the Bible alone, with- 
out being able or even willing to give them any assist- 
ance to the right interpretation of it. Another 
will claim the right of imposing any opinion of its 
own as matter of unhesitating belief, and will shut 
up the Bible from .the common eye, even while ac- 
knowledging it to be the inspired word of God. 
Another will draw up a number of difficult theological 
doctrines, collected by itself out of Scripture, and 
compel every one to accept them, whether poor and 
ignorant, or wise and instructed. In all this I do 



168 



ATHANASIAN CREED. [ciIAP. VII. 



not recognise the spirit of a messenger from God, nor 
even of a wise, temperate, and judicious man, whose 
testimony I might consult in this as in any other im- 
portant question in life. 

I must examine these, said the Brahmin. 

Yes, I replied, unhappily you must examine them ; 
for divided as Christians are now by their own sins, 
you have to choose not only between your present re- 
ligion and Christianity, but between one body of men 
calling themselves Christians, and many others. You 
cannot belong to more than one; "For by one spirit 
are we all baptized into one body :" 1 and that is not 
one body which is divided either in faith, or in sub- 
mission to authority. And when you do examine 
them, will you observe in the Articles of the English 
Church some other characteristics, which I think will 
not be without their weight of evidence ? 

What are they ? said the Brahmin. 

I fear, I replied, you cannot understand their full 
value without knowing more than you do of the 
history of other times and other countries. But I will 
endeavour, if I can, to give you some general view of 
it another time ; entreating you only to bear in mind 
that I would confine my observations simply to those 
points which seem to indicate in the Chinch of 
England such a serious, thoughtful, moderate, and 
discriminating temper — one so far removed from pre- 
judice and from passion — as may justly entitle her to be 
received as a messenger from God, witnessing to you 
the truth which, through a succession of hands, she 
has received from his first appointed ministers. 



1 1 Cor. xii. 13. 



$ 

CHAP. VIII.] THE BIBLE. 



169 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The next morning I had come to the usual place 
of meeting earlier than usual, and the Brahmiu and 
Missionary found me sitting under the shade of the 
tree ; I had picked up one of the flowers which had 
fallen from it, and was examining the structure of the 
seed-vessels. You seem, Sir, said the Brahmin, to be 
deeply interested in your occupation, and yet I do 
not suppose that your mind is far away from the sub- 
ject of our late conversations; if indeed, as you once 
said before, all nature is only full of the same truths 
which you believe to be revealed in your Gospel. 

No, I replied, I was thinking on this very subject. 
This seed reminded me of the question which you 
asked respecting the connexion between the creeds of 
Christianity and the Bible ; a question which, I fear, 
the Missionary has thought me disposed to postpone 
too long, because I felt it necessary to give you pre- 
viously an answer to his inquiry respecting the creeds 
themselves. 

The Brahmin smiled, as if surprised that I should 
connect together two such distinct objects. 

You smile, I said; and yet there may be nothing 
fanciful in the belief that the Almighty Creator of the 
world formed it in all its parts after certain fixed 
types and patterns : that he repeated every where the 
same fundamental laws, and exhibits every where, in 
matter as well as in spirit, the same deep analogies. It 
is on a belief of this that all human science is founded ; 
and as Christians we have much to confirm it. I 
was thinking that in this little seed lies hid the germ, 
and rudiments, and perfect outline of the whole tree, 

part i, Q 



170 



THE BIBLE. 



[CHAP. VIII. 



which will spring up from it when planted ; and that 
the whole tree, vast as it may be, will be only an ex- 
pansion and developement of the seed, repeating in 
every branch and leaf the same characteristic features 
which are wrapped up and impressed in this little 
embryo. And then I thought, that we sowed the seed of 
God's word in the child's mind, first in the shape of 
the Apostles' Creed, where the whole body of Chris- 
tian truth is coiled up, as it were, and buried, every 
fibre carefully arranged, and ready to be evolved in its 
proper place at the proper time ; and that it is deve- 
loped a little more, but without any essential altera- 
tion, as it springs up in the Nicene and the Athanasian 
Creeds ; the same truth in nearly the same form, 
only expanded and warmed into more life and ful- 
ness. And lastly, it spreads out into a tree ; and that 
tree is the Bible, which contains the creed, that is the 
truths and doctrines of the creed, multiplied, and en- 
larged, and repeated in a thousand forms, but never 
altered. 

And yet, said the Missionary, surely the Bible 
contains much which is not to be found in the creeds ? 
The history of the Jews for instance, and the Psalms 
of David. 

It does, I said, as the tree contains far more ma- 
terials in bulk than the little seed. But the essence, 
and character, and powers of the tree, its power of pro- 
pagating its kind, and of nourishing or destroying life, 
with all its other qualities, depend not on the extra- 
neous matter, which it may have taken up and organ- 
ized, and assimilated with itself in the progress of its 
growth, but on the fundamental and original lines of 
the organization of the seed itself, by which, and upon 
which, the whole is subsequently shaped. And so it 
may be with the Bible : all that is vital and impor- 
tant in it may be only an amplification and expansion 
of the creed. 

And do you omit then, said the Brahmin, the con- 



CHAP. VIII.] THE BIBLE. 1 7l 

sideration of your articles as an intermediate expan- 
sion of the creed ? I thought this was the subject on 
which you proposed to speak to-day. 

I would rather, I said, that our attention should be 
turned at once to the Holy Scriptures; for, much as 
we may venerate and cherish our articles, they are but 
human compared with Scripture. They are not to be 
placed on a par with the Apostles' Creed ; for the 
formulary has not been handed down to us from ■ a 
time, and under that sanction, which justifies us in 
attributing that creed substantially to apostolical au- 
thority. They cannot be compared with the Nicene 
Creed ; for although the additions made in that for- 
mulary were made by men, of whom many might err 
as men, they were a council of the Christian Church 
spread over all the world, and could attest the uni- 
versal practice and received doctrines of that Church ; 
and their decisions have been ratified, and their voice 
obeyed, by 1500 years of Christian generations. Nor, 
though the Athanasian Creed partakes still more of 
that which is human, being probably drawn up by 
some one individual, is that without the sanction and 
support of the Catholic Church, which has adopted 
and confirmed it. But our articles were drawn up 
by, and owe their sanction to, but one branch of the 
Catholic Church, that one which exists in England ; 
and though we firmly believe them to be consonant 
to the apostolical teaching, as exhibited in the Bible, 
and agreeable to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, 
still our judgment on this agreement may be wrong. 
At any rate it is not so protected against error as the 
Catholic tradition on which the Apostles' Creed rests, 
or as the declared Catholic consent by which the 
Nicene and Athanasian Creeds have been confirmed. 

Do you understand me ? I asked the Brahmin. And 
will you acknowledge that in preserving the proper 
subordination of those declarations which have 

q 2 



112 



THE BIBLE. 



[CHA.P. VIII. 



emanated from only our own branch of the Church, and 
to which therefore, if any self-will were allowed to find 
vent, we might he more bigotedly and more presump- 
tuously attached, we show a spirit far removed from 
what is condemned as evil dogmatism ? 

I will, said the Brahmin, willingly. 

But there is another reason, I said, why I would 
not willingly delay any longer speaking to you of the 
Holy Scriptures ; of that blessed book of books, which 
Almighty God has given to us, as one of our greatest 
treasures, and surest confirmations of our faith. 

What is this ? said the Missionary ; and he smiled 
as if he anticipated what I was about to say. 

You know, I said, that there are Christians who 
have misused the right and the name of tradition, on 
which I have laid so much stress ; I mean the Roman 
Catholics. They have claimed to one branch of the 
Church, under one bishop, the right of declaring the 
teaching of the Apostles, without supporting their 
testimony by the testimony of other independent 
churches. They have brought forward practices and 
doctrines as possessing apostolical authority, and 
therefore as binding on the whole Church, although 
allowing the utmost to their statement, they have 
derived those doctrines from one Apostle only, and 
not from the whole apostolical body. And they have 
endeavoured to force many of these doctrines thus 
set forth, as necessary to salvation, without at- 
tempting to prove them by the Holy Scriptures ; some 
of them, in fact, being not contained in Scripture, and 
others directly contrary to it. Whether the witness of 
such a body, under such circumstances, is equal in 
weight to that which I have exhibited to him in the 
principles of the English Church, I leave the Brahmin 
to judge. But we all know that, as might be natu- 
rally expected, a system such as this, let loose from all 
the checks which the wisdom of God has imposed on 



CHAP. VIII.] 



THE BIBLE. 



173 



the corrupt tendencies of man. to neglect or pervert 
his truth, soon broke forth into fearful enormities and 
abuses. 

It is too true, said the Missionary. 

Into these enormities and abuses, I continued, we 
will not now enter. But they were mainly supported by 
an abuse of the word tradition ; although, as we have 
before seen, the fundamental cause of the evil was the 
neglect of tradition, and the abandonment of those 
two safeguards, namely, the Catholic consent of inde- 
pendent churches, and the written word of God, ap- 
pointed for the purpose of preserving men in the pro- 
fession of an hereditary traditional faith, and of ex- 
cluding all human admixture with divine revelation. 

The Missionary seemed to hesitate. 

And it is natural, I said to the Brahmin, that men 
shocked with superstitions, wearied with extortions, in- 
dignant at cruelties, and shamed by sins, which grew 
up and were sheltered under this abused name of 
tradition, should dread it, wherever it was used ; not 
distinguishing between the true and the false, and 
therefore accusing the true of all the hideous conse- 
quences which emanated from the false. 

It is natural, said the Brahmin. 

And men fear, I said, that every recognition of the 
value of tradition must end in a depreciation of the 
other great channel of divine truth, the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; for so it was in Popery. And yet it would be 
very inconsistent with the calm, thoughtful temper of 
a Church which is the messenger of God, to forget 
one of his blessings in contemplating another, or to 
sacrifice one part of his safeguard in order to preserve 
its counterpart. Nature has provided man with double 
accesses to most knowledge. He sees with two eyes, 
hears with two ears, corrects his impressions of exter- 
nal objects by more than one sense, w 7 alks with two feet, 
works with two arms ; all things, as is said in one of our 
sacred books, " are double one against the other," 

Q3 



174 



THE BIBLE. 



[CHAP. VIII. 



And it is only by opposing and antagonistic forces 
that man's double nature can be governed, and pre- 
vented from running into one excess or another. For 
this reason I would not willingly delay speaking to 
you of our Holy Bible at once, lest the Missionary, or 
even yourself, should think that I was insensible to its 
blessing's. 

I was pleased to observe that the Missionary seemed 
more satisfied. 

And I will speak of it, I said, as I spoke of the 
creeds, principally to point out to you remarkable 
features in the Bible, which seem to confirm the wit- 
ness of the Church as a messenger from God; for 
this perhaps has been too much neglected. When 
men recovered the Bible from the hands of Popery, 
and were enabled by it to rescue themselves from the 
darkness in which they had been lying, and felt its 
comforting voice speaking to their hearts in all their 
troubles and distresses, it was natural that they 
should magnify this great gift from God; and, feeling 
that it was divine, should appeal to feeling as the 
witness that it was divine. And I do not say that 
it is not a witness ; far from it ; it is a witness to 
each of us in our own hearts. How often will a 
man say, £ I believe ! but if you ask me why, I can give 
no reason ; and yet I do believe ; and for my own life, 
and happiness, and action, this is sufficient — I want 
no more. 5 And if the belief be true, wherefore 
should we disturb and unsettle it, to place it on a 
foundation which, to a simple, childlike heart may not 
be needed, and may not seem stronger ? And we know 
from God's own word that such a belief is good — is 
in some sense the best of all beliefs, and the sure 
proof that God has given to the mind, which pos- 
sesses it, his own Holy Spirit, God's spirit within the 
heart recognising instinctively God's voice without. 

Yes, said the Missionary, and he again turned to 
his Bible. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



THE BIBLE. 



175 



" He that is of God, heareth God's words : ye there- 
fore hear them not, because ye are not of God." 1 " Ye 
believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. . . .my 
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they fol- 
low me." 2 " We are of God : he that knoweth God 
heareth us ; he that is not of God heareth not 
us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the 
spirit of error." 3 And again : " If we receive the 
witness of men, the witness of God is greater ; for 
this is the witness of God which be hath testified of 
his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath 
the witness in himself : be that believeth not God 
hath made him a liar ; because he believeth not the 
record that God gave of his Son." 4 

Add to these, I said, the passage from St. Paul. 
" For what man knoweth the things of a man, save 
the spirit of man which is in him ? Even so the things 
of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now 
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the 
spirit which is of God ; that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God." 3 And 
therefore that a man should recognise in the Bible the 
living word of God, and should feel it coming home 
to his heart, and influencing his conduct, and that he 
should need no other evidence to convince him of its 
divine origin but its own simple voice — this is a blessed 
thing ; and such a man may well be thought happy. But 
evidence, whether needed or not, and whether effica 
cious or not, must be addressed, if at all, to the reason. 
It must refer to proofs which can be argued on, to facts 
which can be brought within the experience of the 
hearer. It may be that the need of it is, in itself, an 
evil — that it is far inferior even in strict logical value 
to the instinctive belief of the heart. " Though ye 
believe not me," said our Lord, " believe my works :" 6 

1 John viii. 47. 2 John x. 26. 3 I John iv. 6. 

4 1 John v. 9. 5 1 Cor. ii. 11. 6 John x. 38. 



176 



THE BIBLE. 



[chap. VIII. 



as if the works, however miraculous, were a lower 
ground of belief than the simple declaration of Him 
who came in the name of God. It may be good 
chiefly to prove that the messenger of Heaven is pos- 
sessed of reason and intellect, which men most value, 
or to convict unbelievers of sin ; but still, if used at 
all, it must be logical. 

The Brahmin seemed to assent. 

Yes, I continued, it must be logical, though all 
logic by itself will fail in producing conviction ; just as 
our Lord and his Apostles worked miracles, though 
miracles often failed to produce belief; and though 
repentance, and love, and doing our duty, and praying 
to the God of all that he would lead us into the truth, 
may be the only things within our reach which really 
can effect it, and effect it under the gift of God's Holy 
Spirit. 

The Missionary expressed his satisfaction ; and I 
observed that the Brahmin was evidently influenced 
by the humility and candour with which the benevo- 
lent, warm-hearted man expressed his agreement with 
me, whenever he could do so from his heart. 

Consider then, I said, our present object. It is to 
examine the Bible by itself; and to see what confirma- 
tion it gives to the declaration of the Church, that she 
is a commissioned ambassador from Almighty God 
bearing a message to man — and how far it forms an 
important part of those credentials and characteristic 
marks which such an ambassador may be expected to 
possess. And while we are speaking on this subject, 
I said to the Brahmin, will you remember that your 
religion also has its sacred books or Bible, its Vedas 
and Pur anas ? And will you compare them with our 
Bible in all these points, as we proceed, and judge for 
yourself which is more likely to be true? 

And first, I said, we should understand what is the 
use of a written book as distinct from oral teaching — 



CHAP. VIII.] 



THE BIBLE. 



177 



for unless we know the office and function of a work, 
we cannot fairly judge of its excellence. And it is, 
perhaps, by mistaking this, that so many misappre- 
hensions have arisen, and so much of contempt on the 
one side, and of dangerous exaggeration on the other, 
has been shown by men in speaking of the Bible, Let 
us speak humbly and reverently when inquiring' into 
the dealings of God's providence ; but confessing that 
all is good, even when we cannot see the mode in 
which the good is produced, we may inquire perhaps 
without presumption into His ways. 

May God in his mercy forgive us all, if we trespass 
too boldly into the mysteries of his dealings ! 

Why then, I said to the Brahmin, would you, if you 
possessed a truth, commit it to writing ? 

Surely, he replied, because I wished to benefit my 
fellow -creatures by communicating it to them. 

Yes, I said, that would be your object in speaking of 
it to them orally, in warning, admonishing them when 
present, inculcating it on them by all the influences of 
education. And if they were young, and were placed 
under your control, vou would endeavour to force 
and fix it in their minds in the same way as we in- 
struct children, by appealing to their affections, by 
rousing their fears, and shame, and emulation, and by 
stimulating their indolence; standing by them to 
adapt the given information to the state of their minds 
at each particular time, and to answer their questions, 
and correct their mistakes. 

Certainly, he said. 

And without this, especially if the truths were dis- 
tasteful, or difficult to comprehend rightly, or related to 
objects distant and unseen, and of which the young 
can scarcely feel the importance or the enjoyment, it 
would be impossible to impress them efficaciously on 
the mind. 

I fear so, he said. 



178 



THE BIBLE. 



[chap. VIII. 



For this reason, I continued, we place over children 
teachers and guardians ; and Almighty God has placed 
us all, when children, under parents, and when grown 
up, yet still children in mind, he keeps us under kings 
and rulers. And thus man has always recognised the 
necessity of having a body of men to inculcate religious 
truths, like all other truths, by the influence of their 
present examples. And thus we assert that Almighty 
God himself has made the same provision for our 
spiritual wants, and has himself appointed a body of 
his ministers, who are to be specially placed in each 
country to be the spiritual parents of all his children. 

The Brahmin assented. 

The influence then of human example — the pre- 
sence of men, or, as we should express it, the authority 
of a Church — is the first thing required for the diffu- 
sion and inculcation of divine truth. 

He agreed. 

Why then, I said, would you commit this truth or 
any truth to writing, as well as communicate it orally, 
and provide for its future transmission in that same way 
through the hands of a perpetuated ministry ? Why 
is not this latter sufficient? 

We commit things to writing, said the Brahmin, 
with the view of spreading them more generally, and 
of preserving them longer. 

Yes, I said, this is the peculiar function of the art 
of writing. It is chiefly a security against the treacher- 
ous or the weak memory of man ; that if he forget, or 
wilfully suppress the truths which he possesses, there 
may be something before the world and himself, to 
bring them to mind by the action of a sensible object 
on the eye. 

Certainly, he said. 

And if the truths which you possessed you wished to 
be communicated to all mankind, in order to improve 
all their hearts, and to contribute to the happiness of 



CHAP. VIII.] 



THE BIBLE. 



179 



all, these written documents should he also accessible to 
all — should even be forced upon them, laid in their 
way, placed in all their houses, meeting their eyes 
everywhere. 

They should be. 

If indeed, I said, we desired to procure the happi- 
ness of only a few, or to create agents only for our 
own advantage, we should confine these records to 
those few; just as secret orders may be given to a 
general, and kept secret by him from all his armv, be- 
cause the knowledge of them might give advantage to 
the enemy. But such is not the case with divine truth ; 
for the enemy of divine truth is the devil, and it is 
the concealment and perversion, not the promulgation 
of that truth which gives to him strength and power. 

The Brahmin was silent. 

To possess then a book containing a revelation of 
God's will, and to preserve it from the public eye, 
shut up in a language not understood by the people — • 
to confine its study to a particular class of persons, 
even though they are persons intrusted with the dis- 
pensation of the truth — this would not seem the act of 
men disinterested, or really wise, or really acting as 
their God would have them act : it would be to frus- 
trate the very object of a written document. 

The Brahmin was again silent ; for he was think- 
ing on his own Vedas. 

And, on the other hand, I said, to diffuse this written 
knowledge over the whole world* to place it in the 
hands of every human being, and to multiply it so 
that it must meet the eye on all occasions — this is an 
act worthy of a Church appointed by God for this 
very purpose, of preserving and diffusing his know- 
ledge among mankind. 

Certainly, said the Missionary ; and this is the great 
and first office of the Church— to diffuse the word of 
God. 



180 



THE BIBLE. 



[chap. VIII. 



No, I said, not its first office ; if you mean, as is 
too commonly meant, by the 'word of God, only the 
written documents ; for we have shown that there is 
a prior and more important office, that of communi- 
cating the word of God (I mean all the truths which 
God, either orally or by writing, has revealed to man- 
kind), and of impressing it on the mind by direct 
human agency and influence. We do not print a 
multitude of Bibles, and diffuse them among a nation, 
trusting to them alone to convert or reform it. "We 
give men indeed the Scriptures, but it is through the 
hands of the Church; and the Church is the first 
object which they will see, and learn to love and obey. 
The Church, with the Bible open in her hand, so that 
every one who runs may read, and not permitting 
only, but compelling them as far as possible to read 
it, is the true minister of God among mankind. This 
is the doctrine of our own blessed Church of England, 
and of the Catholic Church of old. While the Bible 
without the Church is the doctrine of Dissenters ; and 
the Church without the Bible is the doctrine of Roman 
Catholics. I ask the Brahmin which system approves 
itself most to him — is most like the conduct of an 
ambassador from God ? 

And we mentioned before, I continued, another use 
of written documents. They not only refresh the 
memory, but they are a check upon abuse or wilful 
suppression of the truth; and this is the reason for 
the introduction of written laws. We still employ 
judges, and trust much to their discernment and 
goodness ; but when we have found them disposed to 
turn their power to some selfish purpose, or to pervert 
the ways of justice, or to be ignorant of right, we then 
prescribe for them a rule of action ; and we make that 
rule as public as possible, that their decisions may be 
given under the proper influence of shame, and the 
fear of detection in wrong. The judge, therefore, who 



CHAP. VIII.] THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 



181 



makes the law by which he is bound and confined 
most public, is most likely to be free from selfish and 
corrupt motives. 

Certainly, said the Missionary, for thus we appeal 
to the general voice of mankind, which must be the 
ultimate tribunal for the trial of truth. 

No, I replied again, I do not think we must speak 
thus, without some caution. When we publish our 
civil laws, that the people may know the rules by 
which their judges are to be guided, we do not make 
the people judges themselves ; otherwise we might 
as well place them on the tribunal at once ; or, what is 
equivalent, might compel the judges to decide only as 
the people should think fit ; in which case we all know 
that right and truth would not long prevail. But we 
place the judge under the public eye, which will thus 
be able to detect his faults; and thus we make com- 
plaint and redress easy : because then if a suitor thinks 
he is wronged by a decision against the written law, he 
may apply to a superior power to see himself righted ; 
and this appeal, in a lawful and appointed order, we 
should not only permit, but encourage. And a suitor, 
however injured, if he confines himself to this mode 
of redress, and does not take the law into his own 
hand, or constitute himself a judge, will neither violate 
the peace of society, nor disturb its organization ; and 
by his diffident and quiet, yet manly conduct, he will 
generally secure his end at last, if that end be justice. 
Even if justice be withheld by his superior court 
for a time, it is better for him to submit patiently to 
authorities ordained of God than to become rebel- 
lious. And far less harm is done even by a few cases 
of real injustice, than by allowing every individual to 
follow his own notion of what is law, and to execute 
it according to his ow T n caprice. And for a Christian 
there is always a remedy ; for though the powers above 

PART I. R 



182 



THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP.VIIT. 



him may deprive him of some good, they cannot com- 
pel him to do evil ; and so long as he abstains from this, 
he can always pray to his heavenly Father, in whose 
hands are the hearts of princes, and the decisions of 
judges — by whom princes and judges are appointed — 
and to whom only they are responsible for their deeds ; 
and his heavenly Father sooner or later will protect 
the right, and "make his innocence clear as the noon- 
day ;" the sooner for his patience, and humility, and 
resignation even to the oppression of rulers, who rule 
by the permission of God ; and who, even when doing 
evil, are made by some secret providence the instru- 
ments of his good pleasure for the chastisement, or 
trial, or discipline of his creatures. 

Do you agree, I asked, with this ? 

It is, perhaps, the best way, he replied; though it 
seems at first sight to militate against the freedom and 
the rights of the citizen, and to encourage injustice by 
precluding us from redressing ourselves. 

If there be a chance of this, I said, occasionally, 
there is a certainty of evil universally, if you adopt the 
other principle, that every man is to be a judge in his 
own cause. For where there is one who would pro- 
nounce rightly, there are a thousand whose ignorance 
or passion would make them pronounce wrongly; and 
so with the case which led me to employ this ana- 
logy. For, I said, by far the greatest number of men 
are ignorant and in error. Are they not ? 

I fear they are, said the Missionary. 

If therefore you allow every man to decide on the 
conformity of the teaching of his spiritual father or 
clergyman to the Bible, according to his own view 
(which view, remember, however precise the words of 
Scripture, will in reality be shaped by his own mind), 
scarcely one decision out of a thousand will be right. 
Every one will maintain his own, without deference to 



CHAP. VIII.] THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 



183 



any superior authority, or any fixed standard of truth. 
And truth itself will be torn to shreds, and be lost 
among the multiplying dissensions of mankind. 

The Missionary made no reply. 

What then, said the Brahmin, is the course to be 
pursued by one who should think the doctrines of his 
teacher or of his Church inconsistent with what he fan 
cies, judging by his own reading and arbitrary construc- 
tion of written words, to be the teaching of the Bible ? 

The same, I said, as by the citizen. In the Church, 
as in every community of men, there are various gra- 
dations of authorities ; magistrates over magistrates, 
courts of appeal from inferior judicatures. Let him 
prosecute these appeals, regularly as they are appointed, 
and soberly, and humbly, and with self-distrust, as 
becomes one who is evidently contending against the 
voice of his apparent superior. From his clergyman 
he can appeal to his bishop ; from his bishop to the 
supreme power in his own Church ; from that to pre- 
vious decisions of the Catholic Church — always re- 
membering that no decision is validly entitled to his 
deference, except in proportion as it is proved to be 
really external to his own fancy — as it is really 
Catholic and universal — and as it honestly professes 
to be supported by Scripture. If all these tribunals 
agree in condemning his opinion, he must be an arro- 
gant and a bold man who should still desire to adhere 
to it, or should place the voice of one individual 
against the collective testimony and authority of the 
Christian Church. But if he still is unconvinced, 
let him abstain from doing at least anything which is 
wrong — from expressing opinions himself, or engaging 
in practices, which, however sanctioned by others, he 
believes conscientiously to be evil : above all, let 
him abstain from disturbing the peace of the Church 
by promulgating doctrines which God has not ap- 
pointed him to promulgate, and for the loss of which 

r 2 



184 THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP. VIII. 

therefore he will not be made responsible. Let him 
not despise, or teach others to despise his rulers — for 
this no love of truth can justify. Let him not seek to 
draw away the young or uninstructed, or those who 
have already their lawful appointed teachers, from 
their sphere and duty ; or create to himself a personal 
influence ; or gather round him a body of followers ; or 
originate a new centre of power and action, which w T ill 
disturb the existing and regularly constituted organi- 
zation of the society to which he belongs. Till he 
receives an especial commission from Almighty God 
commanding him to undertake such a work, whether 
the commission be given to him directly or indirectly, 
let him be content with endeavouring to preserve his 
own conscience clear of offence both to God and man ; 
suffering, if it is necessary to suffer — holding his course 
calmly and quietly w T ithin his own bosom — praying to 
God to enlighten those who may be in error — acknow- 
ledging humbly his own ignorance and weakness — and 
showing in all his acts alacritv to obey his rulers in 

O ml J 

all things which he doubts not to be lawful. O 
that such a spirit could even now be infused into 
our hearts ! How soon would doubts and dissen- 
sions disappear ! And God would bring the truth 
to light ; and we should stand before the Brahmin 
commanding his assent to our message from the Most 
High, as Christians ought to stand ; " keeping the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," 1 owning " one 
body, and one spirit, even as we are called in one hope 
of our calling — -one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 
God and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and in us all." 

We were all silent for a short time ; and then the 
Brahmin said, If your principle, Sir, be right, how 
can you ask me to leave the religion of my fathers, 



1 Eph. iv. 3. 



CHAP. VIII.] THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 185 

the system under which I have been placed by Pro- 
vidence, and rulers and teachers whom I am bound 
to respect ? It would seem that if your recommenda- 
tion be thoroughly acted on, no one could pass 
from one religion to another — for he is not allowed to 
compare them without the greatest deference to his 
existing teachers ; nor, even if he does compare them, 
is he at liberty to promulgate his opinions without the 
charge of being factious and presuming. 

My friend, I replied, have we so soon forgotten 
the point on which I have endeavoured to lay so 
much stress ? I have indeed recommended that no 
one should leave the place in which Providence has 
fixed him, or should lightly abandon his religious doc- 
trines, or interfere with and oppose his religious 
teachers. But all this was subject to one condition — 
that he has no authority from God so to do. But 
when God calls him to such a work — calls him, I said 
to the Missionary, as he called Abraham of old from 
the midst of an idolatrous people, or as Jesus Christ 
called his apostles, or as the bishops of old called out, 
and our bishops at this day still send out, ministers 
commissioned by God, to summon men to repentance, 
and require them to leave their idols, and their sins, and 
turn to Him, the living and true God — when he calls, 
that is, with a voice which cannot be mistaken for a 
fancy of our own or of man — then, all that was before 
rashness and impatience, becomes now a solemn duty. 
Ask this question first of every one w T ho presents to you 
a new doctrine, or new community of religion ; demand 
his credentials from God ; and if he possesses none, it 
is safer not to follow him. He may perchance be 
wiser than others ; but if you follow him, then upon the 
same principle every man may follow every man ac- 
cording to his own caprice ; and society is dissolved. 
Listen to him indeed so long as he brings to light 
truths and laws which are already recognised in vour 

r 3 



186 



THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP. VIII. 



own system ; so long as he stands as a teacher under 
that system, purifying and reforming it from its cor- 
ruptness by the help of its own principles and its own 
rulers. All this is safe and wise; and good will 
come of it. But make no new head, and admit no 
schism in the body to w T hich you belong. And I 
would say to you, my friend, if you reject the offer of 
the Gospel, and yet are dissatisfied with your own 
system of belief, act upon these principles. Go back 
to your Yedas ; ascertain their real doctrines ; gather 
from them all that they teach of the holiness, omni- 
potence, and spiritual nature of God, and of the spiritual 
worship which he requires of his followers, and of the 
happiness only to be obtained by a spiritual union 
with Him. Bring these before the minds of those 
wmo ought officially to be respected and followed. 
Induce those who have authority over you to acknow- 
ledge the truth, and to lead the way in the reforma- 
tion which may seem necessary. Purge your ido- 
latrous worship from the blood, and lust, and supersti- 
tion with which it is now polluted ; but for this pur- 
pose employ the teaching of your own ancient books, 
which you acknowledge to be holy, and which recom- 
mend no such worship, but everything that is opposed 
to it ; and by the help of your own authorized teachers 
and rulers, without creating any defection from them 
by setting up new. If their ear is deaf that they will 
not hear, and you cannot induce them to purify the 
system of which they are the appointed heads, with- 
draw into your own bosom ; abstain yourself from all 
things sinful : in the little province of which you are 
the appointed ruler and teacher under God, as in your 
own family, teach what you believe to be the truth, 
and enforce the right fearlessly and fully : if you are 
persecuted, submit patiently ; but do not trespass on 
the province of another, and leave them to the punish- 
ment of their master — even God. Enough and more 



CHAP. VIII.] THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE. 



187 



than enough for every one of us, is the responsibility 
laid upon us each for the care even of a single being, 
as of a child, a servant, or a pupil, who may be placed 
by Almighty God in our hands, without our seeking a 
heavier burden, by undertaking uncalled-for duties, 
which he has assigned to others, and of which they, 
not we, shall one day give account to Him. Do you 
comprehend this ? I said. 

I do, said the Brahmin ; and were the advice acted 
on, it would prevent much of discord, and violence, 
and licentiousness. 

And yet, I said, it would be sad to think that this 
should be your course of conduct; for you cannot 
sink back contentedly into your own system of belief, 
and resolve to live and die in it, even purified or reform- 
ed as you may hope to see it, without having rejected the 
call of God upon you to undertake a far higher work. 
If I am not an authorized minister of God charged 
to deliver you the offer of salvation, and the knowledge 
of his truth — if I am speaking of myself, and not the 
words of Him who sent me — you will do well to 
abide by what you have received from your fathers. 
They at least may claim from you some and no little 
obedience, as placed over you by the hand of God. 
And God is the only Being whom you are bound to 
consult and follow. Better to obey your parents, and 
by obeying them in all the good which they inculcate, 
to clear away the errors which have grown round 
their teaching, than to set them at nought, and follow 
a self-appointed teacher, who brings no commission 
from on high. Some one you must follow. No one 
ought you to follow except' one, in following whom 
you follow God. Ask therefore in every case where 
doubt arises between teachers, which of them comes to 
you from God, and all will be well. And compare well 
the claims of your own teachers now with those which 
we produce to be received by you in this capacity. I 



188 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



[CHAP. VIII. 



dwell on this because I fear that such warnings are 
much needed, and will be needed more and more each 
da} 7 . And now let us return to the Holy Scriptures. 
I gave you, I said, the other day a little book, in 
which the whole of our Holy Scriptures or Bible was 
contained ; and if you knew the whole history of that 
little book, it would, I think, make you regard both 
it and those who bring it to you with reverence and 
wonder, the more so from its very apparent insigni- 
ficance. I would that we could carry you to the coun- 
try from which it is brought — to England, from which 
has come the power (not, we fain would hope, for your 
evil, but your good) under which you are now living ; 
and whose duty we acknowledge it to be to contribute 
in every way possible to the prosperity, peace, know- 
ledge, goodness, and happiness of your people. This 
we hold to be the task imposed on us by Almighty 
God, in whose hands is the dispensation of all power, 
when he gave to us our empire as a nation. If we 
are placed to govern, we must govern not for our own 
wealth, or the gratification of our own lusts, but for 
the good of those who are placed under us. If any 
men here or elsewhere have spoken a different lan- 
guage, they would be repudiated and condemned by 
the united voice of my dear mother country. And 
I would fain hope that you do not disbelieve this — that 
we do not in your own eyes seem to have acted towards 
you as tyrants. 

Certainly not, said the Brahmin. 

And we learnt this, I continued, from this holy 
book, and from the lessons of our religion, which 
commands us "to do good unto all men and this 
spirit is not natural, is it ? Men do not often set bounds 
to their own ambition or their own power. Rather, 
if they invent for themselves, or follow by their own 
arbitrary will, a religion invented by other men, it 
will be one which gives free scope to the passions of 



CHAP. VIII. J POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



189 



man ; whereas we, if we have done anything unjustly 
(and I do not deny that such guilt may have been 
ours at times), yet, so far as we have professed the 
Christian faith, we have carried with us and professed 
in the face of the world our own condemnation. 
Like our conscience, our faith has followed us, pro- 
testing against our evil deeds, warning us, terrifying 
us, charging us with acting in violation of its com- 
mands; and, willing as we might be to escape from 
its presence, we have not dared to shake it off. It is 
therefore a voice coming from without, which we 
have not invented, which we cannot silence — which is 
the voice of God. 

The Brahmin seemed to be struck with the sug- 
gestion. 

But in this countrv, England, I continued, we should 
show you a vast nation who for nearly 1600 years — 
that is nearly from the time when the Gospel was first 
preached among men — have received, and more or less 
have publicly professed their belief in it. You would 
indeed find in it sin and wickedness, doubt and dis- 
sension ; men acting at variance with the belief 
which they declare with their lips ; contending against 
each other in idle disputes, or casting aside the au- 
thority which they ought to obey ; but, in the midst 
of all this, clinging with a strange and almost super- 
stitious adherence to the name of Christianity, and to 
a belief in the divine nature of these Holy Scriptures : 
and remember their very sins witness to the truth 
of a faith which they thus are compelled to cleave to ; 
and their very dissensions on particular points of dis- 
cipline or doctrine confirm their agreement in the fun- 
damental facts. 

And do not our sins then, asked the Brahmin, and 
our dissensions to which you have before alluded, 
prove the same thing of our faith ? 

No, I replied, they do not ; for your sins — the sins 



190 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. [CHAP. VIII- 



which shock the eyes of Christians in this country — 
are sins not against your public profession of religion, 
but a part of it ; mixed up with your worship ; a real- 
ization of its precepts. If we shed blood, we hear 
the voice of our holy book declaring, " Thou shalt do 
no murder." If we defile our bodies with lust, we 
have the same holy book to tell us to flee fornication : 
" Know ye not that your bodies are the members of 
Christ ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and 
make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid ! . . . 
What ! know ye not that your body is the temple of 
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of 
God, and ye are not your own ? For ye are bought 
with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and 
in your spirit, which are God's." 1 If we think to 
worship God in outward forms without the service of 
the heart, we have the same holy book protesting 
against us, " Now after that ye have known God, or 
rather are known of God, how T turn ye again to the 
weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again 
to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and 
times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have 
bestowed upon you labour in vain." 2 Bloodshed, lust, 
and superstitious forms are no part of our religious 
worship. ,They are excluded from our temples- — they 
are prohibited by our faith — and if we are guilty of 
these sins, and yet do not abandon our faith, it is be- 
cause we cannot — because it is too true to be cast off. 
No, I continued, clear your religious worship from all 
things foul, and cruel, and silly — burn no more 
widow r s — destroy no more children — let no more scenes 
of riot, and blood, and lust take place round the sta- 
tues of your idols — stand before your people, com- 
manding them to worship the great God of all things 
in spirit and in truth. Let this voice be made to ring 



1 1 Cor. vi. 15. 



2 Gal. iv. 9. 



CHAP. VIII.] POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



191 



in their ears, every day, in every place, by the appointed 
priests and rulers of the people, placed among them 
tor this very purpose; and then, if they still continue 
to sin and to believe, sad as their state will he, it may 
be an argument that their belief is from without, that 
it is not human ; and their blood will not be upon your 
heads. 

The Brahmin seemed not unmoved; but his in- 
quiring spirit soon returned, and he proceeded to 
question me further. 

If, he said, you make this popular and public pro- 
fession of a belief in your Scriptures such an argu- 
ment for their divine origin, why may not we use the 
same, who believe as implicitlv and as firmlv in our 
Vedas ? 

If, I replied, a physician came to you with a medi- 
cine which he declared would infallibly cure a disease, 
and confirmed his assertion by a list of innumerable 
persons who had expressed a belief in its efficacy, 
would this, I ask, be sufficient to persuade you, or 
would you question him still further ? 

I should ask him, I think, said the Missionary, 
whether the persons who witnessed to it had tried it, 
or only had heard of it from others ; whether they 
were capable of judging ; whether they were blind fol- 
lowers of the blind, or able to distinguish imposition. 

Certainly, said the Brahmin, 

And do your people, I asked, do even your Brah- 
mins generally, understand your Vedas ? The study 
of it may be inculcated on them, but do they pursue 
it ? Meditation on portions of it may be a duty ; but 
is it not meditation on mere words and texts, without 
any searching inquiry into their real spirit and appli- 
cation ? I speak as to a candid mind ; are not these 
things so ? 

The Brahmin inclined his head sadly. 

My friend, I continued, it is no pleasure to censure 



192 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [cHAP. VIII. 



or condemn sins in any but ourselves ; and it is less 
perhaps by finding fault with the opinions of others 
than by setting forth the reasons of our own that truth 
is promoted, and promoted without the fear of pro- 
voking evil feelings. I will therefore rather tell you why 
I think the popular consent not only of my own country, 
but of Europe at large, composed of so many vast em- 
pires and distinct nations, ought to be received by you 
as a strong evidence that the book which I have brought 
to you is divine. 

In the first place, the Christian religion, as mainly 
founded on that book, is acknowledged by all our 
rulers ; it has been identified with the government of 
the nation ; mixed up with our laws ; confirmed by 
statutes, and made inseparable from our constitution. 
And what has been done in England has been done 
more or less for 1500 years in the other kingdoms 
of Europe. But our rulers, especially when they act 
under laws, and with the advice of the good and great 
among the people, we usually regard as competent 
witnesses to general truths. For government cannot 
be founded either on the profession or on the practice of 
evil ; and folly and wickedness cannot long main- 
tain their place at the head of empires ; and laws, 
however bad the individual legislators, will rarely, if 
ever, be found to profess aught but what is good and 
true. Such is the nature of man ; so formed that the 
voice of conscience within him must always find vent, 
even though the will is not yet subdued to it. 

I cannot deny it, said the Brahmin. But have not 
kings and legislators in our own country, and in many 
others, testified to the truth of systems which you 
deny to be true ? 

They have, I said; and I will not enter into any 
comparison of the value of the testimony of heathen 
kings to heathen religions, considering them as 
good and wise men, for this it might be difficult to 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 



193 



ascertain satisfactorily. Yet one thing is remarkable in 
Christianity ; — that so many different nations, derived 
from different origins, of different manners, languages, 
and prejudices, under so many different circumstances, 
have yet agreed together in professing this one com- 
mon faith. But I would rather point out another dis- 
tinction. You can understand that civil rulers should 
be desirous of securing the obedience of their subjects, 
and their respect for law ; and that this can best be 
done by keeping them under the restraints of religion, 
and under the ministers of religion ; and therefore it 
has seldom happened that any ruler has failed to pro- 
vide for the support of some religious system in his 
government ; he regards it as a species of police, as a 
creature of his own, as a spiritual magistrate, useful 
for his own worldly ends. On the other hand, there 
may be rulers who, finding a religious system deeply 
grafted in the minds of the people, and being afraid 
to provoke rebellion, either tacitly acquiesce in it, or 
even encourage it, for the sake of winning popularity 
and preserving peace. Such, I fear, is the attestation 
to your own religious creed which you might infer 
from some acts of our own government in this coun- 
try. There may be a third case — where over the 
civil ruler there is placed a vast and powerful body of 
spiritual rulers, forming an incorporate society by 
themselves, interested in the preservation of their 
own prerogatives, and holding, in effect, the monarch 
and the state virtually under their own control : such 
I conceive to have been the nature of your own re- 
ligious system, and that of some other countries in 
the East. Now perhaps in all these cases the support 
of the civil ruler is no very real testimony to the divine 
nature of a religion or a church. The witness may 
be considered as defending only his own creature 
and instrument, or as deferring to the popular voice, 
or, what is equivalent, as compelled by an external 
fart i. s 



194 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP. VIII. 



force. But there is something in the history of the 
Christian Church which would strike you as a very 
different case, if you were able to read it; and part of 
this you may even recognise in what is passing before 
your eyes. It is, in the first place, not the creature 
nor the instrument of the civil power ; it professes to 
be an independent society, for its own spiritual pur- 
poses ; its heads and founders were chosen by God ; 
from them our spiritual privileges, like our religious 
faith, have been handed dow r n within ourselves; some- 
times defended by kings, sometimes persecuted for a 
time ; owning — in all things that relate to the body, 
and the wealth, and the temporal necessities of man — 
obedience to the powers that be, " as powers ordained 
of God ;" but allowing neither emperor nor king to 
trespass on our own high prerogatives. We do allow, 
as you may see in our thirty-seventh article, that " unto 
the King's Majesty doth appertain the chief govern- 
ment of all estates of the realm ; that he hath power 
to rule all states and degrees committed to his charge 
by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, 
and to restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and 
evil doers." But in this same declaration we assert 
(and our own princes have confirmed it) that we "do 
not give to our princes the ministering either of God's 
word or of the sacraments." We do not allow them 
to interfere or tamper w T ith that message of truth w 7 hich 
God has committed to ourselves, nor with those dis- 
pensations of his best and greatest gift, the Holy 
Spirit, which none but his own appointed priests may 
presume to touch. Now I do not stop to point out 
that here also is another indication in the Church of 
her own firm belief that she is a chosen messenger 
from God ; otherwise, how could she acknowledge 
that God's ministers, the kings of the earth, ought to 
be obeyed in all things, simply because they are the 
ministers of God; and yet reserve to herself, and 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 



195 



perish rather than abandon, her own peculiar privi- 
leges, unless these also were held from God. The 
greater her obedience to the civil power in all tem- 
poral things (and the true Catholic Church will be 
obedient even unto death) the more remarkable is her 
obstinate refusal to admit any interference in her 
spiritual matters ; and yet spiritual matters are of no 
small importance in the government of nations. 

They are most important, said the Brahmin. 

Yes, I replied : he who commands the soul is able 
also to command the body ; and it is he who forms 
the mind of a nation, who educates the young, who 
directs the consciences of the old, who advises the 
doubtful, who recalls the erring, who threatens the 
sinner, who commands the respect of the wisest, and 
the willing obedience of the poor and the religious. 
Priests, therefore, and religious leaders have before 
this been the formers, and sometimes the overturners 
of states; and kings who have not been either their 
servants or their absolute masters have regarded their 
clergy with jealousy and fear, as sharers, it may be 
as usurpers, in their own dominions. For we cannot 
serve two masters ; there can be no divided allegiance ; 
and if a king cannot command the minds as well as 
the bodies of his subjects, if he cannot direct the edu- 
cation and prescribe the habits which they form, he is 
but half a king. And so you will find that kings have 
been jealous of the Christian clergy, and of the Chris- 
tian Church. Some have deprived it of its posses- 
sions ; others have endeavoured to degrade it ; others 
have made efforts to intrude upon its peculiar privi- 
leges ; all have been anxious to preserve some check, 
at least, if not some immediate influence, on the ap- 
pointment of its rulers. And there were times when 
the Roman Catholics, of whom you have so often 
heard, had abused their spiritual power, and united 
themselves together in many countries under the 

s 2 



196 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP. VIII. 



Bishop of Rome; and he, having acquired this power, 
trespassed on the authority of the civil rulers, extorted 
money from their subjects, harassed even kings them- 
selves with threats, and wars, and tumults ; and as- 
sumed to himself the right of deposing monarchs, 
and giving away crowns, and absolving subjects from 
their allegiance, and even permitting subjects to mur- 
der their sovereigns. So that, even at the present 
day, the "king of England is guarded against such an 
usurpation by oaths, which his subjects, and especially 
his clergy, are obliged very properly to make, "that 
they do abhor and detest such practices as damnable 
and heretical and this oath we most willingly and 
from our heart will take; for we are a true branch of 
the Catholic Church, adhering to Catholic principles, 
and professing the true teaching of the Apostles, as 
we find it in the testimony of the Catholic Church 
and in the Scriptures. " Submit yourselves to every 
ordinance of man for the Lord's sake : whether it be 
to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto 
them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil 
doers, and for the praise of them that do well." 1 
And again, " Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers ; for there is no power but of God; the powers 
that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore 
resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God ; 
and they that resist shall receive unto themselves 
damnation." 2 

But if it is your principle to be thus obedient, said 
the Brahmin, is it wonderful that the rulers of vour 
nation should be desirous of supporting you ? 

It is wonderful, I replied, because for so many 
years, in our own country for several centuries, the 
clergy, who had suffered themselves to be corrupted 
by the Roman Catholics, disobeyed those commands, 



1 1 Peter ii. 13. 



Rom. xhi. 1. 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 197 

and were too often disposed rather to obey a bishop 
in a foreign country than their own lawful sovereign ; 
and those bishops did, as I say, provoke their sove- 
reigns by assuming powers to which they had no title. 
So that laws w T ere obliged to be passed from time to 
time denying those powers, and prohibiting obedience 
to them. And at last, about 300 years back, a king, 
stronger and more provoked than the rest, joined with 
his clergy in shaking off their subjection to this Bishop 
of Rome, and declaring finally and, let us pray, for ever 
the independence of their kingdom. Jhis you must 
remember when we come to compare the church of 
which I am a minister with the claims of those Chris- 
tians who, you say, have before this spoken to you of 
their religion, but who are the agents and servants 
rather of this Bishop of Rome than of God and the 
Catholic Church. But I mention it now to show you 
that throughout all these provocations, and fears, and 
struggles to escape from the usurped powers of the 
clergy, still the ciyil rulers did not shake off their 
religion, and still professed their belief that our Creed 
and our doctrines were true. And of late years, as 
dissensions have multiplied among us on points of dis- 
cipline, owing to the forgetfulness of those truths on 
which w r e have been speaking before, and as men have 
for a time supposed that it was unnecessary for Chris- 
tians to be joined in one body, by holding one pre- 
cise form of belief, and obeying the same spiritual 
rulers, and uniting in the same public services ; our 
governors unhappily have shared this opinion, and 
have not liked to decide among several contending 
parties, and have even doubted if it were their duty 
to pronounce on religious questions in their public 
capacity. And yet they have not dared to cast off the 
name of Christians ; or, though they doubted of par- 
ticular teachers, to deny that the Bible is true. In 
this point I may say that the whole of Europe is 

s 3 



198 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP. Vllf. 



united. Differ as we may on questions of Church 
government, and matters of doctrine, here is a fact on 
which all our nations and sects concur ; and the voice 
cannot be despised or crushed. 

But do you not lay too much stress, asked the Mis- 
sionary, on the testimony of men ? " God receiveth 
not rhe witness of man," and rulers are often ignorant 
and bad. 

I am appealing, I replied, as I have argued from 
the beginning — mainly to their testimony to a fact, not 
to their judgment on the goodness and wisdom of the 
Gospel; though I am far from undervaluing this, 
especially in countries like our own, where, by the laws, 
those who make the laws must be irenerally chosen 
from the higher and more educated classes. I say 
that they have acknowledged in the Church a power 
which they did not originate, and which they cannot 
destroy — that they have acknowledged it even in times 
when they laboured under every temptation to deny 
and destroy it — that they look upon it with as much 
jealousy as respect — that, perplexed as thev mav be 
with difficulties, they dare not openly throw off their 
spiritual allegiance to it, — that they own it as their 
master and teacher in the most solemn acts of life, — 
that they have recourse to it for advice and assistance 
as to a Being of a higher nature than themselves, — 
that even bad rulers know its power to be so great, 
that rather than risk its abuse of it they would fain 
impoverish or even corrupt it; — and that, desirous as 
they are to make it their slave and keep it wholly in 
their power, there are privileges, the highest pri- 
vileges of the Church, which the state dares not invade. 
Go, if you will, to the civil rulers in this country^ and 
ask if they dare pull down the churches of Christians, 
their subjects seize their property, or put them to death; 
and those rulers might say, "We abstain from such 
acts because they would be cruel and tyrannical ; but 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 



199 



only for this reason." And then ask the clergy jn this 
country, or of England generally, whether, if such acts 
were done, they would be justified in resisting or rais- 
ing an arm against their persecutors, or in permitting 
the people to rebel ; and they must answer, u No, God 
has forbidden us to repay evil with evil. We are to 
submit in all such things to the powers that be ; 
blessing those that curse us, and praying for those that 
despiteiully use us and persecute us." But, then, go 
once more to the civil ruler, and ask him if he dares 
to put forth a form of Christian doctrine without the 
consent of the clergy, or to administer those simple but • i 
solemn forms of our religion under which are veiled 
our most sacred mysteries ; such I mean as the breaking 
of bread and pouring of wine in the congregation, in the 
remembrance of Christ; and he must answer, No— 
that he dare not do it ; not because it were cruel and 
tyrannical, for, humanly speaking, it would injure no 
man ; but because the clergy never would permit it ; 
because these were offices reserved by God himself to 
his. own appointed ministers of religion, and implied 
powers, great and awful powers, which as he, the civil 
ruler, did not create, so he could not trespass on, with- 
out violating the ordinances of God. I say that here 
there is evidence of a fact; evidence of a power within 
the State distinct from the State itself, and superior to 
the State even in a certain part of that province of out- 
ward acts which the State claims as peculiarly its own. 
And as the State itself owns no superior but God — as it 
is, and must be, the supreme authority on earth, that 
which is in anything superior to it must come from 
God also. No one can limit and circumscribe the pri- 
vileges of God's ministers, which ministers kings and 
states are, but God himself. And when the State declares 
that the Church possesses any privileges which it dares 
not, for conscience sake, touch (the more simple and 
seemingly indifferent they are, the stronger the argu- 



200 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP. VIII. 



ment), and that it dares not deny the Bible, it testifies 
that the Church is indeed as a prophet sent from God, 
"bearing a message which man dare not alter, and a 
commission which he cannot supersede. 

But neither would our civil rulers, said the Brahmin, 
dare to trespass on the rights of us, the Brahmins, 
who are in this country what the clergy are in yours. 

It may be, I replied ; but one difference you have 
forgotten. Would they fear from you, the Brahmins, 
a resistance which might overturn their empire ? Are 
you not a mighty body, and able and ready to raise a 
secular arm against them ? But the Christian 
Church, if it acts as Christ has commanded, is power- 
less, humanly speaking, as an infant. Like its heavenly 
Master, though God could send down from heaven 
twelve legions of angels to defend it, it may not take the 
sword, but, rather than resist, is bound to be led like 
a lamb to the slaughter. When therefore a power 
jealous of it, and, in an earthly sense, its entire mas- 
ter, abstains from trespassing on its privileges at the 
very time that it covets them, it must be from a sense 
of some superiority, given to it, not by an arm of flesh, 
but by the providence of God. 

And how then, said the Brahmin, could I see in 
this little book, which you have placed in my hands, 
the testimony of your rulers to its truth ? 

In the first place, I said, you will see in the very 
first page that it is set forth by " his Majesty's special 
command." You will read in the dedication of the 
translation to one of our kings, that it was by royal 
hands that means were provided for the work, " as by 
the principal author and mover." You will observe, 
also, that it is printed at a great University. Of this 
point, in which much is implied worthy of attention, 
I will speak presently. Just now, it is enough to tell 
you that Bibles are in England only allowed to be 
printed in certain places — at the printing presses of 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 



201 



the chief Universities, and by the king's printers. 
This is a state-enactment ; and the object is to prevent 
them from being printed carelessly, so that any mis- 
take might creep into the text, or the slightest cor- 
ruption from man mix with the pure stream of the 
Word of God. No such care has ever been shown 
of any secular book, however good and useful. The 
Bible has been guarded by our civil as by our spiritual 
rulers with the greatest anxiety, as a solemn deposit, 
which they are bound to communicate to all mankind, 
but to communicate it precisely as they have received 
it, with not a word altered. Aud this restriction is the 
more remarkable, because it is directly opposed to the 
spirit of publication itself, as well as to the general 
tendency of the age. That which we wish to diffuse 
as widely as possible we might permit to be diffused 
by as many hands as possible, thinking little of confin- 
ing it to a few. And I ask if here also there is not a proof 
that the highest authority in the land, which, neverthe- 
less, is not the clergy, and therefore cannot be ac- 
cused of acting with interested motives to spread a 
doctrine or influence of its own, does witness to the 
truth of our declaration, that the Bible which we bear 
in our hands is the Word of God ? Can you produce 
the like in support of your sacred books ? 

The Brahmin made no reply. 

I mentioned also, I continued, that this little book 
which I have given you was printed at one of our cele- 
brated Universities, which for many hundred years 
has been the centre and diffuser of light and learning 
throughout the land. Its studies, and the studies of 
numbers throughout England, as throughout Europe, 
are to extend over the whole range of nature. They 
are to include the histories of the most ancient nations, 
the learning of civilized and of barbarous tongues, 
the mysteries of philosophy, the laws of reasoning and 
evidence, the religious systems of other people, the 



202 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP. VIII. 



principles and operations of nature, and the workings 
of the human mind. I am not claiming for any one 
place or body of men the possesion of such an amount 
of human knowledge ; but I mean that in my country 
every branch of knowledge is thrown open to human 
inquiry ; everything put forward is subjected to criti- 
cism ; every fact is scrutinized ; eyes and ears are open 
in every direction, to catch, refute, and expose to 
ridicule and odium a false representation. And the in- 
tellect which does this, and the discipline by which it is 
sharpened for the work, are principally to be found in 
our great schools of education, such as the University 
from which this Bible proceeds, published under her 
immediate direction, as the greatest and best gift 
which she can offer to the world, and of the truth 
of which she is so deeply persuaded, that she bears 
it as her most honourable insignia, referring to it 
and to God's Holy Spirit as the source of all her 
knowledge and the end of all education, in these few- 
simple words, " The Lord is my light." And at these 
words the good Missionary unaffectedly raised his eyes 
to heaven, and seemed inwardly to utter the same 
w r ords of prayer and thanksgiving. 

My friend, I continued, addressing the Brahmin, I 
will not speak of your sacred books as if I knew them 
by my own reading, for I am not acquainted with their 
language ; and it is only recently that Europeans, from 
whom I derive my imperfect knowledge of their nature, 
have been able to procure access to them : but I would 
ask you to reflect whether or not they can bear a com- 
parison with our Holy Scriptures in these points also. 
They are retained in your own hands, permitted to be 
read only by those who are interested in preserving 
a belief in their truth and sanctity. Have they been 
submitted to the judgment of others ? Have they been 
translated into almost all the languages of earth, so 
that in every country men of learning and talent should 



CHAP. VIII.] TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. 



203 



be able to examine and detect their errors, if they con- 
tain any ? Have they been exposed to the attacks of 
artful, bitter, and unrelenting enemies ? Have they 
been studied ; and defended, and loved and honoured 
more, the more they have been studied, by men who, 
while with one hand they turned the leaves of the 
Bible, with the other opened the pages of all human 
lore, and ransacked the treasures of antiquity in every 
age and clime ? If you asked me the impression made 
upon learned Europeans, to whom such questions are 
familiar, by the study of your Yedas, should I be able 
to tell you that they traced in them a depth, a con- 
sistency, a truth, and grandeur, and usefulness, which 
made them worthy of that divine origin which you attri- 
bute to them ? I fear not. I speak not at present of 
the many external proofs which such men in their stu- 
dies find of the truth of the Bible, and of which the 
Yedas are destitute; for these points may occur hereaf- 
ter. But compare the two together; and what attestation 
of learning and knowledge can you bring in support 
of the Yedas, like to that which is borne on the very face 
of the Bible by the place from which it proceeds ? 
And now, 1 said, you are wearied for the present, 
and we will proceed on another occasion. But remem- 
ber, I said to the Missionary, the object which I have 
immediately in view. It is to lay before the Brahmin 
the amount of external testimony to the fact that the 
Bible is from God, and that the Church is the minister 
of God. External testimony, the testimony of men, 
is the surest and best ground of all belief. It gives 
us an external rule, not liable to be affected by the 
waverings of our own feelings. It brings with it 
humility, and obedience, and other virtues which 
bind together human society. And it saves us from 
that bold and rash speculation, which, by bringing 
every truth down to the level of our own understand- 



204 



TESTIMONY OF THE STATE. [CHAP.VIIT. 



ing, makes each man and each child, ignorant or wise, 
wicked or good, the measure of all things ; and thus 
leads to the denial of all truth and to the ruin of all 
goodness. External historical testimony, the testi- 
mony of men, is the foundation which I desire 
to lay. 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE, 



205 



CHAPTER IX. 

When we met together the next morning the 
Brahmin commenced the conversation by asking me 
the meaning of the word " stereotype," which occurred 
in the title-page of the iittle Bible which I had given 
him. 

It means, I said, a particular mode of printing ; 
and I am glad that you have asked the question, for it 
will lead us at once to the subject, with which we 
closed our conversation yesterday. You observe, I 
continued, one great difference in the form in which 
our sacred books and your own are preserved and ex- 
hibited. Yours are written by the hand ; ours are 
printed. Do you see in this fact of printing anything 
remarkable ; any evidence of truth ? 

The Brahmin hesitated. 

Why, I said, do we not confine ourselves to writing 
with the hand ? 

Because, he said, you wish to multiply copies, and 
circulate them at a little expense ; whereas a manuscript 
occupies considerable time, and can therefore only be 
read by a few, and those rich men, who are able to 
purchase it. 

Certainly, I replied ; and therefore the mere fact of 
this Bible being printed is a proof that many copies of 
it are needed and circulated. And the poorer and 
cheaper the form, the greater the proof that it is 
intended to be procured by the poor, by children, by 
all mankind. 

It is, he said. 

And if it is to be placed in their hands, it is intended 
that they should read it ; but they cannot read it witli- 

PART I. T 



208 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX. 



out previous instruction and education. Wherever 
therefore you find the Bible printed, there, as a neces- 
sary consequence, it must follow (unless, indeed, other 
circumstances intervene) that the persons who print 
the Bible wish all mankind to be instructed and 
educated. 

What circumstances did you allude to ? asked the 
Missionary. 

I was thinking, I said, of the Roman Catholic 
priesthood, who, like us, indeed, print their Bible, but 
it is in comparatively small numbers ; and they accom- 
pany this with many discouragements to reading the 
Scriptures, and virtually shut them up from their 
flock. Yet still they dare not deny that the Scriptures 
ought to be both circulated and studied. Were it not 
that we are standing by their side, and condemning 
them for this obvious inconsistency, there is every 
reason to suppose that with them the Bible, like the 
Vedas, would soon be wholly withdrawn from the 
public eye : not only that the priesthood might seem 
to have exclusive access to the sources of divine know- 
ledge, and so might preserve their power over the 
laity ; but because that power, and the means by which % 
it is upheld, are both of them contradicted by the 
written Word of God, which they cannot exhibit with- 
out publishing their own condemnation. But let us 
return. Is it, I ask, a sign that teachers and rulers 
desire unauthorized power — power which can only be 
retained by keeping the people in ignorance— that they 
should desire to remove this ignorance ? 

The Brahmin answered, No. 

Is it a sign that they fear the detection of imposture, 
if they place the means of detection in the hands of 
the whole world ? 

No. 

If I doubted or suspected a flaw in the title-deeds 
to my estate, to which I appealed daily for the posses- 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 



207 



sion of all that I valued, should I publish them, and 
force them on the inspection of any — much less of 
every one — much less of strangers, enemies, envious 
and captious men, who were perpetually declaiming 
against my wealth, and charging me, without grounds, 
with imposition ? 

And are the Scriptures, I said, the title-deeds to the 
estate of the Christian Church, without which that 
Church declares that she has no right to assert creeds, 
or to decide on doctrines ; and against which she may 
not minister her sacraments, or exercise her authority ? 
Where the Scriptures condemn, can the Church act ? 

Certainly not, said the Missionary. 

And, in instructing and educating the people, does 
she tend to raise up and increase the very spirit of 
captious inquiry, which, if her claims are ill founded, 
she would most dread ? You find, I said to the 
Brahmin, little doubt or resistance among your own 
people to the doctrines which you put before them ; 
but if you made them all exercise their thoughts, rea- 
son upon questions, bring them before the tribunal of 
their own understanding, distinguish between truth 
and falsehood, compare your doctrines with the doc- 
trines of others, do you think they would remain as 
docile and obedient as now ? This we have alluded 
to before. 

I fear not, he said. 

And yet, rather than withhold from the people the 
truths which God has commanded us to place before 
them, we risk, and we also suffer, this great evil and loss 
of our own power. Heresies and schisms may have mul- 
tiplied upon us fearfully, since the Bible was rescued 
from the hands of Popery ; and yet w T e do not think of 
closing it up. We dare not; and we rather trust the 
issue to Almighty God, by whose command we act, than 
endeavour to avoid an evil by disobeying him. Even 
these very divisions may be fulfilling some end of 

t 2 



208 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX. 



Divine Providence. " For there must be also heresies 
among you," said one of the Apostles to a church 
which he himself had founded, " that they which are 
approved may be made manifest among you." 1 The 
Roman Catholic closes up the Bible, and then glories 
in the seeming unity of faith which he thus secures, as 
he idly thinks, among his ignorant followers. We 
lay the Bible before them, warning them not to abuse 
it, and offering to guide them in the study ; and then 
if errors spring up, deeply as we lament them, we yet 
rest content in our obedience to God. Which, I ask 
you, seems to act most closely under the rule and law of 
that Maker whom he professes to serve ? Is not the 
very magnitude of the evil which we deplore, and our 
patience in risking it, a proof that we must bear with 
us some sanction from above ? Otherwise, if we acted 
only by the light of our own reason, and by our own 
judgment of expediency, we should avoid the mischief 
which w r e so earnestly pray against. 

Consider also, I said, another fact in regard to the 
art of printing. 

I am listening, said the Brahmin. 

If it be a vast instrument for forcing divine 
truth before the eyes and minds of all men, and 
stimulating their understanding to attain the know- 
ledge of God, it is an instrument efficacious to the 
same, perhaps to a greater degree, in laying evil and 
sin before them, and rousing the spirit of unbelief. If 
the Church is able by it to sow wheat in the Lord's field, 
the enemy also may sow tares by it ; and the enemy 
has done this. Our libraries teem with books ; every 
day pours out fresh numbers on various subjects; some 
criticising old truths, some propounding new theories, 
others opening new lines of inquiry; all implying 
that the world is in darkness on some subject or 
another : for, without this were the case, it would be 
1 1 Corinth, xi. 19. 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 



209 



unnecessary either to write or to publish what is known 
already. 

And thus, said the Brahmin, the art of printing . 
tends to destroy all adherence to old systems, and to 
introduce every kind of novelty. I do not congratu- 
late you on it. 

Neither do I congratulate ourselves on this sad but 
natural effect. "We know that it tends to produce 
vanity and conceit, — that books may be read by persons 
without any teacher standing near to interpret or cor- 
rect them ; and thus the young and ignorant are led 
to forget that they need teachers. And as it enables 
every one to publish his thoughts cheaply, it tempts 
many who ought to remain in a humble place as 
learners, to become, as they think, the instructors of 
others, before they are instructed themselves. And it 
accustoms us to come before the public eye, and to 
think of public applause, and to judge by the judg- 
ment of the public, and to aim rather at pleasing and 
being admired, than at upholding truths which the 
world may dislike ; and thus they who should be the 
instructors of the world become panderers to its vices 
and evil tastes. And as no check is placed, or perhaps 
can be placed, upon the publication of books, w T hen print- 
ing is once introduced ma free country, it follows that 
crude, hasty view T s are daily put forth, and contentions 
provoked, and appeals made to common readers to de- 
cide on every controverted question ; and thus the hum- 
ble-minded are perplexed and disturbed with doubts, 
and the arrogant are made more arrogant. I speak not 
of all the more open and glaring wickedness which the 
ministers of the evil one circulate through the press ; 
of their temptations to sin, of their ridicule of all that 
is sacred, of their attacks upon sacred men, of their 
calumnies on the lives of the most innocent, of their 
hatred to law and order, of their blasphemy and foul- 
ness ; all of which is spread abroad by the printing- 

t 3 



210 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX. 



press, and wrought into one fearful compound, which 
infects the very air we breathe. Is this, I said, an 
overcharged picture ? Is this the state of England 
and many parts of the continent at this time ? and I 
appealed to the Missionary. 
I fear it is, he said. 

And yet, I proceeded, we are grateful to Almighty God 
for having in his own good time revealed to us a know- 
ledge of this art of printing, though it has necessarily 
exposed both ourselves, and the truths which we bear, 
to this fearful trial — a trial to the truth of God like the 
trial by fire to the souls of his martyrs of old. And I 
would ask you to tell the Brahmin yourself how the 
truth has borne this trial. 

Tell him, I said, if, notwithstanding our differences 
in other points, the Bible is still (may I not say uni- 
versally ?) acknowledged to come from God. In this 
point are not all agreed ? 

Yes, said the Missionary, except a few shameless 
men, who are held up to public contempt. 

There may be many, I said, who disbelieve practi- 
cally and in secret ; but do men who respect their own 
character dare openly to avow their unbelief? 

Certainly not. 

And they dare not, I said, not from fear of punish- 
ment ; for we boast in the present day that we tolerate 
all opinions, whether true or false, innocent or hurtful. 
They dread disgrace. 

I believe so. 

And disgrace in the eyes of the world, of society at 
large. 

Most probably. 

Yes, I said, disgrace attached to a disbelief in the 
Bible by an age tempted beyond all others to doubt 
its origin, to scrutinize its statements, to reject its 
mysteries, and to disobey its commands. Am I ex- 
aggerating in this ? 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE , 



211 



I think not, said the Missionary. 
And we might, I said, return to the question of the 
Brahmin, respecting the word " stereotype," and show 
him, from what is beneath his own eyes, other proofs 
tending to the same effect. For the very process of 
stereotyping is invented for the purpose of facilitating 
the multiplication of copies in exactly the same form. 
Instead of putting together the letters separately, each 
time that copies of a particular sheet are to be struck 
off, a book of which, without the alteration of a single 
letter, a vast number are constantly required, is printed 
from plates cast in solid pieces. I believe the process 
is not found to answer, and has been abandoned ; but 
abandoned because it was found that more copies could 
be taken securely in the other way. But observe, that 
the object throughout is to multiply, and multiply 
with precise accuracy ; to place the Word of God 
before all mankind, but to place it in its own pure un- 
changeable form, secured from the corruptions of men. 
The Brahmin thanked me for the explanation. 
And if you knew, I said to him, other circumstances 
connected with the printing of this lit :le book, they 
would impress you, I think, still more. You would 
see a vast building in the great University, from which 
it is sent, dedicated chiefly to this work of printing 
Bibles. And let me repeat what I suggested before, 
that this University is not composed of clergymen, 
though many clergymen belong to it. It is an inde- 
pendent body, of great wealth, and power, and dignity, 
created by the state for the purpose of increasing and 
diffusing every kind of useful knowledge ; and it has 
been endowed and honoured by successive generations 
of kings and rulers, and might be to a certain degree de- 
stroyed to -morrow by the same power of the state which 
created it. And it has under its care the education of 
a large portion of the first classes in the country, 
who are placed under it by their parents and friends ; 
so that not to have been educated either by it or by 



212 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX. 



a sister university is considered a defect in life. And 
these great bodies have for years superintended the 
publication of the Bible, and gloried in it as one of 
the noblest of their duties. It may be difficult for 
you to understand me clearly. But you may see 
something of the nature of the testimony which is 
thus borne to the Scriptures by a learned body, as to 
the word of God, which thev are bound to receive 
and diffuse, but do not, dare not alter. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. ™ 

And even in the machine, I said, which is em- 
ployed for the purpose of printing this little book, 
there is much to excite reflection. You would see 
two little boys standing by some large iron wheels, 
which are moved by the power of steam. And one 
of them places upon them a sheet of blank paper, 
which the wheels, like a reasoning being, take up, 
nAl round and round upon themselves ; and then 
throw out into the hands of the other little boy, nearly 
as quick as he can receive it, the same sheet of paper 
printed accurately on both sides ; so that it has been 
calculated that this engine could print bibles at the 
rate nearly of one every minute. 

The Brahmin expressed his surprise. 

It is, I said, a sight full of surprise. And not 
merely as a phenomenon of machinery, but from the 
considerations involved in it more deeply ; some of 
which I would suggest to you, if you would like to 
hear them. 

He bowed his assent. 

In the first place then, I said, this engine is moved 
by steam, a vast power, of which in this country we 
see little, but which in Europe has effected a most 
wonderful revolution in the relations of society. By 
this ships are enabled to traverse the ocean con- 
trary both to the winds and waves ; by this carriages 
are propelled on roads at a rate which enables us to 
pass in a few hours a distance which not many years 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 



213 



back would have consumed days and weeks ; by 
this vast arrangements of machinery are put in 
motion, so that we are supplied with manufactures 
and luxuries almost without the labour of man, and 
for the smallest sums of money. In this country 
you little know the wonders which human art, minis- 
tering to human ambition and human indulgence, 
has worked, and is still working, by means of this 
passive slave, placed in our hands by Providence, 
whether for our blessing or our curse I do not say. But 
I wish you to reflect, if you can, on the state of society, 
which must exist where such a power is in active opera- 
tion. How much of force and energy — how much of 
thought and science — how much of research into 
the mysteries of Nature— what rapid communication 
of knowledge — what a busy, restless, feverish desire of 
novelty — what impatience of restraint — what a thirst 
for wealth — what luxury and indulgence, and con- 
tempt of old institutions, and pride of power, and 
sins of human beings gathered together in dense 
populations, and hidden from the eye of shame and 
the hand of law — what poverty accumulating in one 
class, as inordinate wealth accumulates in another — 
what neglect of the ties of home, and of the duties 
of humble life — what a spirit, in one word, let loose 
to unsettle, and change, and corrupt, and tear to 
pieces the whole fabric of society ! All this you may 
not see ; but 1 speak of things which are seen in 
Europe, and which every day that you live will be 
brought more palpably before us. I ask you, is it not 
a wondrous thing, in the midst of this shock of ele- 
ments, this tempest of human passion let loose upon 
the world, this crushing and falling of all the old 
institutions of the earth, to see bodies of men stand- 
ing firm with one book and one belief in their 
hands ; raising their heads the higher as all other 
mortal powers are sinking beneath the storm ; plant- 
ing themselves firmer than ever on the rock of ages ; 



214 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX. 



yielding no single concession to the clamours of the 
people — warning, and threatening, and defying them 
in all that relates to God ; and yet prepared to sink 
peacefully and calmly, almost without a struggle, under 
the hand that only robs them of their property in this 
life ? Yet such is becoming more and more the cha- 
racter of the Church in England. And I know not 
how to account for it, except by that stern, uncom- 
promising resolution which those feel and act on, who 
know that they are possessed of truth, and bear w ithin 
them the presence of a higher power than man's, even 
that power which they profess to possess and to com- 
municate, the spirit of God. 

And do you mean, said the Brahmin, that the 
clergy in England at this moment are acquiring more 
power than they possessed before these elements of 
disturbance had been let loose ? 

I do, I said. They seem to have acquired fresh 
vigour, more authority, more of influence from the 
very attacks which have been made on them — attacks 
which to human eyes it seemed wholly impossible 
to parry, and which they have thrown back and 
defeated, not by an arm of violence, but by simple 
submission and remonstrance. The tide is turned ; 
and it has turned we know not how; stayed and 
called back by some invisible hand, which sways 
the destinies of nations ; not for our merits or our 
goodness, (for we were sunk in indolence and sin,) 
but by an act of wondrous mercy ; as if, in one part 
of the world at least, as our prophecies have long 
declared, the Church and the truth of Christ should 
still stand firm to the last, when all things else were 
crumbling into ruins ; and as if we were that des- 
tined nation, thus favoured by our heavenly Master, 
to be the sanctuary of his truth, the last shelter of 
his faith, " a light to lighten the GentileSj and the 
glory of his people Israel." 

And the people, said the Brahmin, the lower 



CHAP. IX.] PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 



215 



orders, for whom this Bible, as you tell me, is printed 
in this cheap and humble form, are they still agreed 
in the faith of Christianity ? 

They have been neglected, T said, and abandoned for 
many, many years to their own derices. We the clergy 
had forgotten our duty. I am not afraid to acknow- 
ledge it; for that, having once forgotten and aban- 
doned it, we should voluntarily return to it — that 
sinners should reform themselves, (that is without 
some other human power to control and compel 
them,) — this is itself, I think, a miracle to him that 
knows the depths of human nature. If I saw a 
stone fall over a cliff, and before it was half way 
down, it stopped in the air and rose up again, I 
should see in it a power beyond nature. Even 
so w hen the soul of man, and still more of societies 
and nations, has once become corrupt, for it to be 
recalled into the path of right, giving up its pleasures, 
abandoning its fancies, and submitting itself to a law- 
ful rule placed over it from without, and not chosen by 
its own caprice — this is itself a miracle. And such an 
incipient miracle we have partially before our eyes at 
this moment in England. God grant in his infinite 
mercy that etrery day it may work more mightily, 
and become more evident. My friend, I continued, 
checking myself, I am speaking warmly and strongly, 
and on subjects which, separated as you are by a wide 
ocean, you can little understand. But it may be that 
one day or other, if your studies and opportunities 
enable you to know more of the state of that country, 
with the interests of which the interests of youi* own 
are now so closely united, you will see these things 
as I see them, and wonder, as I wonder, at the miracles 
of which I have spoken. But I will return to your 
question. You asked if the lower classes believed, 
as their rulers profess to believe, the truths of the 
Gospel and the Bible ? 
I did, said the Brahmin. 



216 



PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. [CHAP. IX.. 



I do not like, I continued, to adopt a common 
and popular maxim that the voice of the people 
is the voice of God ; that is to take the judgment 
of the people as an evidence of truth, without much 
caution and discrimination. And yet perhaps in 
their reception of the Bible their evidence is most 
striking. 

And will you not receive the testimony of Hindoos 
in general to the truth of their religion? asked the 
Brahmin. 

No, I replied, for the cases are not the same. The 
Hindoos believe in the religion which they have 
been taught by their fathers. They are devotedly 
attached to ceremonies and rites which they have 
practised for years. They reverence the teachers 
whom they habitually see standing over them. Such 
is the fact in all religions, and such the state of the 
popular mind. Like a stone, it will remain on the 
ground till some power impels it from without. 
And that Christians should remain Christians gene- 
rally, is no other than the ordinary phenomenon of 
all religions. But let me ask you a question. 

Willingly, said the Brahmin. 

Can any man, I said, testify with authority to a 
fact which he has not himself experienced ? 
Perhaps not, he said. 

He may assert that such a fact is agreeable to his 
former experience, or that it accords with his expec- 
tations, or that such a doctrine pleases him ; and 
his testimony thus given must be limited to this. 
But whether such facts are agreeable to man's experi- 
ence at large, or correspond with true reason, or 
ought to please him if his taste were sound — these 
are other questions, no way affected by his testimony. 
And if his experience be confined and imperfect, 
and his expectations nothing but the result of idle 
prejudices, and his desires corrupt, we could infer 
from his opinions or the impression made upon him 



CHAP. IX.] POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



217 



little or nothing as to the real truths which we might 
wish to ascertain. So it is with the popular voice. 
Taken together to attest a particular fact, which many 
men have experienced together, and which all are 
capable of judging on, such testimony is irresistible > 
but only in such cases. 
The Brahmin assented. 

Let us consider, then, some of these cases. In the 
first place the popular voice may testify to facts, of 
which men were cognizant by their own senses. 
When five hundred disciples testified that they had 
seen our Lord after his death, when others declared that 
they had seen the dead raised, the blind restored to 
sight, the lame made to walk, the waves of the sea 
lulled to a calm, and thousands fed with only a few 
loaves — these were things to which their senses wit- 
nessed. And all men's senses are fairly correct and 
free from error. There is a singular uniformity and 
agreement in their testimony to general appearances. 

And yet, said the Missionary, when common people 
suppose that the moon is only a few feet in diameter, 
or that a straight stick plunged in the water is 
crooked, we must not believe them then. 

Yes, I said, we must implicitly believe all that 
they mean, and have a right to assert ; which is, that 
the moon to them appears only a few feet in diameter, 
and that the stick appears crooked. We know these 
words are true, for the appearance is the same to 
us. But when they assert or imply by their words 
that what appears to them in this state is really so, 
here they assert something of which they have had 
no experience ; they state an inference of their reason, 
not merely a fact before their senses ; they mix up 
an argument that things must be externally exactly 
what they seem internally ; and in this inference and 
argument the falsehood lies concealed. It is man's 
reason that deceives him here, and not his senses. 

PART I. U 



218 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. [CHAP. IX. 



Do you comprehend me ? 
Yes, he said. 

And I dwell on this, I said to the Brahmin, because 
in your own body of philosophy, and in your own 
religious doctrines, there are contained notions, which, 
like Popery, seem to set at nought this evidence of the 
senses, upon which, logically speaking, Christianity is 
based. 

Certainly, he said, it is not uncommon to speak of 
all things sensible as mere illusions. 

But we say, I continued, that things sensible are not 
illusions, but very real. And when any men, however 
ignorant and however poor, declare simply what has 
appeared to their senses — as to instance, again, that 
when children, they were taught to repeat such a form 
of words or creed, or to attend such a place of worship, 
or that they witnessed such and such ceremonies, or 
heard such and such declarations — we cannot distrust 
them without we are able to prove that they have an in- 
terest in deceiving us ; and we cannot well prove this, 
where vast numbers are joined together having no 
selfish bond or object, and all make the same declara- 
tion. Here, then, a popular voice is of the greatest 
weight — I doubt if any can be greater. 

It is very great, said the Brahmin. 

And upon this evidence, I said, as on a rock, rests 
first the Christian's belief, that the faith which he 
professes was derived to him from the Apostles ; 
secondly, the belief of the Apostles that what they 
were taught from Christ was sanctioned by a power 
which, as far as they could see, was greater than men's ; 
and thirdly, if we may so dare to speak, in some 
analogous way, even the witness of our Lord himself. 1 
"Art thou a master of Israel," he said to one who 
would fain have been his disciple, " and knowest not 
these things?" " Verily, verily I say unto thee, we 
speak that we do know, and testify that we have 

1 John iii. 10. 



CHAP. IX.] 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



219 



seen." 1 And again, "Though I bear record of my- 
self, yet my record is true ; for I know whence I came, 
and whither I go." 2 " He that sent me is true, and 
I speak to the world those things which I have 
heard of him." And it is added that when he affirmed 
his mission from Heaven in this way, " many believed 
on him." 3 Now I said that upon these grounds I 
adduce the popular voice to testify that the religion 
and faith which they acknowledge is not new ; that 
it was transmitted from a former generation ; and you 
will not dispute it. 

I am not inclined to do so, said the Brahmin. 

But I will adduce it farther, to prove something 
more. If a book is read, studied, appealed to, 
valued generally, it shows that there is a voice within 
it which comes home to human nature, which is 
adapted to the wants of our hearts, which indicates 
in the author a deep knowledge of the secret springs 
of thought and feeling within us. 

Certainly, said the Brahmin. 

And the more vaguely and almost carelessly this 
book has for some time been laid before men, 
I mean with the absence of personal influence to 
compel the study of it, the more it is clear that the 
study of it is spontaneous ; and therefore, that it is 
itself agreeable to man's feelings. 

He assented. 

And no one, I said, is capable of witnessing to 
this point, or of stating the accordance of a book or 
doctrine with his individual wants and aspirations, 
except those who have really read the book, applied 
its doctrine, and practised its precepts. 

He agreed. 

None, therefore, ^vho have not read the Bible, and 
studied it honestly and faithfully, need be asked 
their opinion of it; for their testimony is valueless. 

1 John viii. 14. 2 John viii. 14. 3 John viii. 30. 

u 2 



220 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



[CHAP. IX. 



They can speak to nothing. Just as no man has a right 
to witness independently to the powers of a medicine 
in curing or killing, until he has experienced it on 
trial. And no one may fairly say that this food 
tastes hitter, or that sour, until he has tasted it. 
Hearsay indeed he may repeat, hut this is no evi- 
dence to the point. I do not say that the testimony 
of others is not sufficient to justify, and even com- 
mand his own belief; but adduced by him, it adds 
little to the real credibility of the abstract statement of 
the matters of fact. 
Certainly not. 

Xow then, I said, having cut off from the populace 
all who have no right to witness in this cause — all the 
bad and the irreligious — let us bring forward all the 
good, who are familiar with the Scriptures, not only 
speculatively, but practically. And let us ask them, 
I do not say if the Scriptures come from God, for 
this is an inference, which other men versed in 
logical reasoning may be far better able to draw, or 
to reject; but whether they find them full of comfort 
and blessing, and useful instruction, " profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness ; that the man of God may be per- 
fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 1 

And I do not hesitate to say that out of the multi- 
tudes of pious Christians who would be here produced, 
(I speak, remember, only of the truly good.) you 
would not find one dissenting voice. You would 
hear blessings and thanksgivings to Almighty God 
for this great boon to our distressed and blinded 
nature : they regard the Bible as a " lamp unto 
their feet, and a light unto their path." 2 It " giveth 
understanding to the simple." 3 It is loved by 
them above gold, yea, aljove fine gold; 4 with 



1 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Psalm cxix. 105. 3 Id. 130. 4 Id. 127. 



CHAP. IX.] 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



221 



it " the young man cleanses his way," 1 and has 
more understanding than his teachers, 2 and more 
"wisdom than the aged." 3 And this voice would 
rise up, not from the educated only, or philosophers, 
but from the poor, and ignorant, and helpless, and 
aged, all with one consenting mouth declaring that 
the word of God, this little hook, was one of their 
greatest earthly treasures ; dearer to them than thou- 
sands of gold and silver, " yea, sweeter than honey and 
the honeycomb." 4 

That such is the fact you might infer from the very 
cheapness and insignificance of this little volume. 
Unless the poor — unless men generally, who read it — 
prized it, and desired to possess it, there would be 
little need of multiplying it, and placing it within 
the reach of all. And it could not be thus multiplied 
as a mere act of charity; for funds would soon fail. 
We sell our Bibles rather than give them away. 
Every fresh volume, therefore, that is wanted is an 
attestation of some fresh experience of its necessity 
and its comfort. Do you understand me ? 

I do, said the Brahmin. 

Compare then, I said, this reverence and love of 
Christians for their sacred volume with the reverence 
felt by Hindoos for their Vedas, and by Mahometans 
for the Koran. All three classes would declare with 
equal earnestness and with equal faith that their own 
religious book came down from Heaven. Now I say 
that the common people, logically speaking, are not 
competent, at least not valuable, witnesses to this 
point. It is a fact of which they do not profess to 
have any direct experience. Their statement is an 
inference, and they repeat it from others ; and even in 
others it is an inference, which it requires peculiar 
discretion and discrimination to draw correctly. And, 
therefore, I would be content to set them all equally 

1 Psalm cxix. 9. 2 Id. 99. 3 Id. 100. 4 Id. xix. 10. 

u 3 



222 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



[chap. IX # 



aside. But then comes the other question, to which 
the poorest and the most ignorant are competent to 
witness ; the effect, I mean, of such a book upon their 
own minds. Can you produce Hindoos and Maho- 
metans of all classes, ages, characters, and circum- 
stances, in distress, in doubt, in difficulty, in blindness, 
in remorse, in fear, in joy, in sorrow, who love their 
sacred books, read them as we read the Bible, carry 
them wherever they go, meditate on them seven times 
a day, apply to them in all their emergencies, and 
feel that to be robbed of those books is to be deprived 
of their greatest delight? If it be so, shame upon 
you, that you shut up such books from the people — 
that you do not give to all mankind at once this 
great boon ! Try the experiment. Let us supply you 
with our printing press ; print off a Yeda in a minute ; 
open shops for purchases ; reduce the price as low 
as possible, so as to make scarcely any profit by the 
sale; educate all your people with a view to their 
reading the Yedas ; teach them, as we teach the 
Bible, in all your schools. Do you think that at the 
end of fifty years you would be able to sell a Veda 
for the small sum of a few shillings, owing to the 
very extent of the demand for its multiplication ? 
I think not. 

But our books, said the Brahmin, were not intended 
for popular use. 

Precisely so, I said. It is the very point to which 
I wished to call your attention. Let us, who are educated 
and capable of reasoning correctly, draw the inference 
which I would not allow the poor and uninstructed to 
draw. Which bears upon it the greatest marks of a 
divine revelation- — a religion possessed of a book which 
so comes home, as the Bible, to the wants and desires 
of mankind, or one whose Scriptures must be shut up 
from all but a few, as unintelligible and useless ? 

Perhaps, said the Brahmin, in a true system of 



CHAP. IX.] 



POPULAR TESTIMONY. 



223 



religion it may be unnecessary to have books ; the 
poor may need only to be told by their spiritual Father 
what they ought to do, and to follow this implicitly. 

I do not say, I replied, that such a state of things 
may not exist ; and if I were arguing by myself, it would 
be sufficient for me to know that not in one revelation 
only to Christians, but in a previous revelation to 
Moses, God was pleased not only to appoint a chosen 
body of ministers to declare his word, but written 
Scriptures also. The fact would be sufficient to prove 
that such a plan was wise and good ; but you do not 
recognise these facts, and therefore we must presume 
to do what we never can attempt too reverently — to 
inquire into the uses and necessity (if we may so 
speak) of a written revelation to the poor — to every 
man. And shall we do this, I said, roughly and 
popularly ; or endeavour to penetrate deeper, and 
reach some general principles, on which we may take 
our stand ? 

I would rather, said the Brahmin, examine the 
question with all accuracy. If we weary of such in- 
quiries, or deal with them superficially, I fear we may 
miss the truth. 

Probably we shall, I said. And if we can ascertain 
some general principles, they may be useful here- 
after in enabling us to understand the contents ot 
the Bible better, by keeping before us its true object 
and place in the scheme of revelation ; for in this, I 
said to the Missionary, perhaps we have all been 
tempted to err of late. 

The Missionary seemed to hesitate. 

Let me ask you then, I said, in the first place, 
wha: is the usual, or rather the universal method in 
which true knowledge is conveyed to all men on all 
subjects ? Something we have said of this before, but 
the very answer, which I hope you will give me, will 
be my excuse for repeating it. How, I said, do we 
teach a child his grammar ? 



224 



USE OF WRITING. [CHAP. IX. 



First, said the Missionary, we make him learn cer- 
tain general rules : for instance, that the substantives 
are declined in this way, that such a verb is accom- 
panied always with such a case, that the genders of 
nouns and adjectives agree, and ethers of the same 
kind. 

And in your grammars, I said to the Brahmin, it is 
the same ; they are summaries, in fact, or abbreviated 
statements of a multitude of facts, which he will after- 
wards experience in the course of his reading. 

They are, he said. 

And, I continued, when the boy has learnt these 
rules by heart, do you suppose that he understands them, 
and that he is able to apply them ? Does he believe 
them from the conviction of his reason, or simply on 
your authority, and because as yet he has no cause to 
doubt ? And would you be content to leave him in this 
state, and call him a grammarian ? 

No, said the Brahmin. 

What then, I said, will you do to perfect his 
knowledge ? 

We place before him, said the Brahmin, a great 
number of examples, in which he finds these general 
rules illustrated. 

You do, I said. And by repeatedly seeing them 
illustrated, he begins, as it is said, to understand them. 
That is, the rule itself is impressed more deeply on his 
mind, by the simple fact of repetition, and he is able 
with more ease to refer to it each case as it comes 
before him. Any case which he cannot reduce under 
some law already learnt perplexes and confounds 
him ; any in which he immediately traces it he under- 
stands. 

It is so, said the Brahmin. 

And in like manner, I said to the Missionary, all 
instruction proceeds in philosophy and in natural 
science. Tr.ose who know the general laws by which 
the stars move in their courses throw those laws 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



225 



into short general formularies — into creeds, if we 
may so speak, of astronomy ; and they make the 
student learn these by heart, long before he knows the 
vast extent of knowledge which they comprise, or 
from which they were deduced. They are to him at 
first scarcely more than empty and unmeaning words. 
And then the astronomer proceeds to show him the 
movements of the planets, to point out particular stars, 
to trace how, by the laws just learnt, the moon and the 
sun will appear at certain moments in certain parts of 
the heaveus, and in certain aspects ; and then the stu- 
dent begins to understand the general laws themselves 
when he sees them again and again exemplified and 
in operation ; so that his knowledge, when matured 
and perfect, is little else than the confirmation, deve- 
lopement, and repetition of his first abstract prin- 
ciples. 

I understand you, they both said. 

And so, I said, in making men good, w r e begin by 
telling them that murder is wrong — adultery is wrong 
— stealing wrong ; that obedience to parents is good 
— that love of their country is a duty. But we are not 
satisfied with this. We take them next to places and 
sights, where they may witness examples of punish- 
ment on sin, and reward on goodness ; w 7 e make them 
feel the law in their own person in all their petty of- 
fences ; we put books in their hands,which illustrate the 
same truths ; and thus the child becomes a moralist, 
and understands his duty. And yet, at the close of all, 
even of the best spent life, and of the most enlarged 
experience, he has not advanced beyond his first creed 
or catechism of morals— that murder is wrong, 
adultery is wrong, and stealing wrong; that obedience 
to parents is good, and that love of his country is a 
duty : and he will sum up all his experience again in 
these few words, and in these words teach it to his 
children. Is it not so ? 



225 



USE OF WRITING. 



[chap. IX. 



It is, they said. 

And so, if I may borrow from your religion a theory 
which is not free from very sad errors, the creation of 
knowledge in the mind of man is like the creation of 
the world, as your mytholcgists conceive it, a perpetual 
developement of the universe from the germ of the 
Divine mind, and a return to it again. 

The Brahmin assented. 

And now, I said, consider that in your religion vou 
have no creed, no authorized summary of divine truths, 
which you may teach your children from the first. 
Secondly, you have a book, several books in fact, which 
profess to contain the knowledge which they require, 
but you do not open it to them. And thirdly, your 
religious education, even if you attempt to carrv it on 
by means of oral instruction, cannot be conducted safe- 
ly and uniformly ; because, whatever illustration you as 
individuals may give of the Divine nature, and his will, 
and operations, the child has no authorised standard to 
which he may refer or reduce them. But perhaps, I said, 
my meaning may be clearer by suggesting that what 
the collection of examples in grammar is to the student 
of grammar, and the observation of facts in astronomy 
is to the student of astronomy, and the experience of 
pain and pleasure, punishment and reward, is to the 
young boy, whom we are teaching to know his duty, 
such is the Bible to the Christian. It contains little 
but the creeds ; nothing, we know, beyond them, which 
it is essential for us to know • but it contains these 
expanded, repeated, enforced, exhibited in a variety of 
forms, confirmed and multiplied. And it is by read- 
ing cur Bibles that we learn to understand our creeds. 
To understand them, I continued after a pause — not, 
remember, to believe them ; (unless by belief is meant 
the confirmed and reasoning belief, which has resisted 
douhts, and examined and removed difficulties.) For 
we believe them with the simple apprehension of the 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



227 



heart, taking them into our minds without knowing 
their value or import, as we take all the other chiefest 
blessings in life, trustfully in our childhood, from the 
hands of our parents and our teachers. Is the fact that 
such a double provision has been made by the same 
Power for teaching the general truths of our religion, 
and for inculcating them afterwards, like that which 
might be expected from the benevolence and wisdom 
of an Almighty Providence ? 

The Brahmin seemed engaged in reflection, and 
made no reply at first. After a pause, he said, But 
why do you require such an authorized illustration of 
your creeds — why may not the clergy illustrate them 
by themselves ? 

Consider, I said, that the mysteries of God are deep, 
and the creeds must be simple ; the mysteries of God 
are many, and the creeds must be short : they must con- 
tain many parts ; and if they are adapted to the strange 
complexity and inconsistencies of human nature, those 
parts must in themselves seem often inconsistent also, 
when they come to be expanded by our own reflection 
and application ; just as we know the doctrines relating 
to the divine and human nature of our Blessed Lord 
were placed against each other in early times, and are 
often placed so now, until one has swallowed up the 
other. And yet there is a human nature, even in the 
heart of men, united with, yet distinct from, a divine 
nature ; and the Being, who is the lord of all our 
actions, and the centre of all our affections, may well 
be both man and God. But reason, or rather under- 
standing — that is, the restless logical power within 
us, which will not be satisfied till it sees through 
everything, will not receive two truths unless it may 
reduce them into one — will not, that is, admit of 
any balance and equilibrium of doctrines. And if 
reason alone be the interpreter of the creed, one doc- 
trine will soon be sacrificed to the other ; but against 



228 



USE OF WRITING, 



[CHAP. IX. 



this the Bible is the check. And thus it was that the 
early Christians always maintained their stand upon 
their Bibles, showing that there also, as in the creeds, 
the same balancing doctrines were enunciated severally, 
but unitedly, and enunciated so plainly, in so many 
different forms, that it was impossible to evade either. 
This then, I said, is one advantage, we might even 
deem it an indispensable requisite, of possessing a large 
expansion of the creeds, that those short summaries 
may not be tampered with and injured ; and you see 
here the extreme importance of that Catholic princi- 
ple, that nothing is to be propounded as an article of 
faith, even in the creeds, but what may be proved by 
holy Scriptures. Shall I mention to you another ? 
The Brahmin bowed. 

I have spoken then, I said, before of two kinds of 
faith — one implicit, like that with which the child 
receives the statements of his parents, never doubting 
or distrusting them, but neither comprehending the 
whole of what he hears, nor able to prove and confirm 
it to himself or to others. If we praise this faith, if we 
think it blessed of God, sufficient for salvation, better, 
far better, and wiser, a million times wiser, than a 
sneering, cold-hearted scepticism in maturer intellect, 
it is not that we think it perfect, or that there may 
not be another kind for other minds, higher and better 
still j that faith, I mean, which believes no less firmly, 
no less affectionately, but can support its belief 
by reasoning : for reasoning is a faculty of our nature, 
and as such is to be developed and exercised. Even 
so we praise and bless the little infants, who have 
never known sin, and " whose angels," we are told in 
our Scriptures, " do always behold the face of their 
Father which is in heaven and yet we honour more 
the Saints and Martyrs, who have been tried, and 
have triumphed over sin, and who have been made 
perfect by suffering and battle. Do you agree with me 2 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



229 



The Brahmin assented. 

Therefore, I continued, a Catholit Church (that is 
a church which adheres to the principles and prac- 
tices of the old communities of Christians, and has 
not abandoned them, like popery) endeavours in all its 
children to open and improve imperfect faith into that 
which is more perfect. With us every church ought to 
have its school, and every school its reading master, and 
everv reading master in them is mainly employed in 
teaching even children to read their Bibles. I do not say 
that this has always been done in a wise and sober way : 
but the principle is recognised, that all Christians, as 
far as the Almighty has given them powers of reason- 
ing, should exercise them ; should think, compare, 
endeavour to understand, inquire, prove, and perform 
all the other functions of a rational, intellectual being. 
In this point we cordially agree with what is called 
the spirit of this age ; though it be a temper of mind in 
other respects which regards in man scarcely any 
other excellence but that of the intellect ; hopes from 
this everything : would give to it unlimited scope and 
freedom, and appeal to it in all things. But we differ 
from this spirit in one essential point — we think that the 
proper, and the wise, and the safe, and we might per- 
haps add, the only business of the understanding is to 
prove and confirm what it has received. The age thinks 
that its business is to disprove every thing, to raise 
doubts, to deny statements, to pick out flaws, to shake 
all the foundations of truth, rather than allow them to 
rest without our penetrating into their inmost depths. 
Observe that from these two different principles must 
arise two wholly different schools, both of thought and 
action ; and if you belong to that to which I do not 
belong, you will scarcely be able to follow me in my pre- 
sent suggestions as to the use and value of our Holy- 
Bible. Others indeed acknowledge its value ; but they 
regard it as a vast field of materials, placed confusedly 

part i. x 



230 



USE OF WRITING. 



[crap. IX. 



before us by divine revelation, in which every man 
may search as he likes, to pick out his own doctrines and 
exercise his intellect, not in proving but in discover- 
ing truth. They approach it therefore without any 
authorized creed, without any summaries or collections 
of teaching drawn up from the previous resources or 
information of others ; they reject all assistance : and 
each man blindly for himself seizes on the first fancy 
which occurs to him, and resolutely adheres to it, without 
searching further ; or drops one after the other, as every 
fresh step throws doubt on that which had preceded it; 
or at last sinks down in despair, denying that truth can 
be found, or that the Bible was intended to convey a 
revelation which is so vague and uncertain. 

It is a sad and a foolish thought, said the Brahmin, 
that we can learn without a teacher. 

It is, I said, assuredly ; and we therefore, in the 
spirit of the Catholic Church, knowing that we 
cannot learn without a teacher, and that the very 
business of a teacher is to supply us with the great 
fundamental truths that we need to learn, and that 
when these are supplied, little remains for the 
learner but to prove them, will so approach the Bible. 
And if we must reason, we will reason in confirmation 
of what we are told is truth, by men whom we are 
bound to believe, rather than to overthrow suspected 
truths, which we only suspect from ourselves. We 
will place our own individual mind, with its weak 
judgment, its narrow experience, its unexercised 
faculties, side by side with the wisdom, the antiquity, 
the matured age, and the practised powers of those 
who have witnessed to Catholic truths ; and then 
decide which we shall follow. 

Yes, said the Brahmin. And knowing this also, 
that even if we commence our search by ourselves, 
with our minds cleared, as is said, from all prejudice, 
that is from all information given to us from without, 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



231 



we cannot proceed a step without first adopting some 
other theory, assuming some hypothesis from within, 
and one that we invent for ourselves ; and that after- 
wards our whole course must be the same as if we re- 
ceived it from another. For we must still inquire as 
proving — that is, looking out for confirmation of 
what w r e believe to be true, and testing this by what we 
find, and rejecting it finally if contradicted by expe- 
rience. 

I perceive, I said, that the study of logic has not 
been neglected in the East ; indeed I know that 
your philosophers have penetrated very deeply into it ; 
and if you recognise this fact, and proceed upon such 
principles, I w r ould fain hope that ere long we shall 
both meet in the same conclusions. You will be able 
at any rate to see now the value of the Bible to us, 
to whom God has given the creed also, and in whom 
he wishes to create, not merely a blind, but an active 
and reasoning faith. For this faith we are now 
enabled to mature and exercise, by working as it 
were in the deep mines of Holy Scriptures, exploring 
their allegories, tracing their histories, connecting 
their prophecies, expanding their hints, examining 
even words, and numbers, and letters, wherever 
a doctrine can be traced which we have learned already 
from the creeds ; and reading, throughout, the same 
truths, now opened, now half concealed, now disguised, 
now illustrated, but now r here altered. And so, I say, the 
practised grammarian is he who, in the multitude 
of phrases and books, retraces the same general rules 
of grammar, and refers every separate phenomenon to 
its proper head and law : and the great astronomer is 
he who, finding some one law of motion to prevail in 
one part of the universe, examines all the rest, and 
finds throughout, under whatever variety of form, 
only exemplifications of the same law. And the 
searcher into the history of animal life, who acquires 

x 2 



232 



USE OF WRITING. 



[chap. IX. 



a name and honour in his generation, is he who, 
having conjectured that all the innumerable species 
of living things that creep, and fly, and swim, and 
walk — clad as some are with wings, and others 
with scales, and others armed with talons, and others 
walking erect upon the earth — are still all formed upon 
one type, which he traces and brings to light in each. 
And the moralist is the man who, having laid down 
some fundamental, generalized rules of action, pursues 
them into all possible applications, and makes a science 
of casuistry. So true is it that all human argument 
is little but the tracing of general truths and prin- 
ciples in particular instances, and all human know- 
ledge little but the comparing such principles with 
their respective developments. And if by the mercy 
of God w T e are enabled to do this in the study and 
knowledge of himself, as in the study and knowledge 
of his works, we owe this pow T er to the Bible; and 
the possession of the Bible is therefore not only a 
great blessing from Him, but it is an argument that 
we, who bear it, came from Him : at least the absence 
of it might be an argument that we did not come 
from Him ; because, if a messenger is sent to perform 
a commission, we expect that he shall bring with him 
all that is requisite for the purpose. 

The Missionary here recalled what had been said 
before of the danger of viewing the Scriptures in this 
light, as containing in every part only expansions 
and applications of the creed. And he again 
objected to this mode of interpretation, as tending to 
mysticism. 

You must remember, I replied, once more, that 
we possess in the creeds all the knowledge necessary 
to salvation ; we want, therefore, to discover no 
other ; and if we do not pretend to find any, but 
what from the creeds we know already to be true, we 
cannot wander into error, or on forbidden ground. 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



233 



Such a mode, therefore, of studying the Scriptures is, to 
say the least, perfectly safe. If, moreover, we mil be 
guided by the interpreters who have gone before, and 
not force even* passage into a meaning and application 
for which we have no authority, and are content to 
suppose that there are many hidden allusions which 
may be drawn out by deeper study — then, indeed, 
while we open a vast field for future inquiry and 
interest, we shall not be tempted to pronounce too 
positively on interpretations which may be strained 
and forced. The evil which has been justly dreaded 
in allegorical interpretation, is the temptation to find 
in the Bible, couched under signs and symbols, not 
truths of the creeds, but fancies of our own. Shall I 
illustrate what I mean by one instance ? — and I do it 
more willingly, because I think the Brahmin will not 
be able to understand the really divine character of 
the Bible without understanding its apparent object 
and nature. 

The Missionary expressed his willingness to hear. 

You know then, I said, that when our Blessed 
Lord was born in Judaea, there came wise men from 
the East — men probably from regions where doctrines 
not unlike those here held were preserved, and wor- 
shipped him, according to the prophecies, w ith gifts of 
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In reading this, a 
casual eye would see nothing but a fact, and one of 
no remarkable interest. But Christians of old, and 
we following their footsteps, having before us con- 
stantly, as we turn the pages of the Bible, the gTeat facts 
of our blessed Lord's nature and life, — his divine es- 
sence, his regal station, and his sufferings for us, gladly 
catch, in these gifts, hints and types of these facts. 
Gold, we know, was used of old to indicate the sove- 
reignty of kings ; frankincense to worship gods ; 
myrrh, the bitter myrrh, to denote suffering and 
death. And thus the passage was read bv the great 

x 3 



234 



USE OF WRITING. 



[CHAP. IX. 



teachers of the ancient Church. And what would 
else be regarded as a circumstance without mean- 
ing or value, thus becomes to us not merely a 
memorial of great truths, but an apparent prophecy, 
and therefore confirmation of them. Do you under- 
stand this ? 

I do, said the Brahmin. 

But in later days, I continued, instead of being 
contented with reading, thus typified in the Bible, 
only the truths contained in the creeds, curious and 
restless minds imagined meanings of their own, 
not involved in the creeds, and not authorized by 
general consent. Thus one interpreted the gifts of 
the Magi as implying three particular virtues ; and 
another as typifying three principal sciences ; and in 
this way everything may be made to mean every- 
thing — and the mind is let loose to wander in con- 
jecture, with no fixed limit to confine it. 

Yes, said "'the Missionary, and there arises also a 
strong temptation, when this latitude and vagueness 
of interpretation is permitted, to force and strain the 
real meanings, until we lose sight of the primary in 
the secondary, and at last the primary are considered 
to be none at all. 

You mean, I said, that we might be led to regard, 
for instance, the visit and offerings of the Magi as a 
mere allegorical expression, shadowing out the hidden 
truth, but not implying a simple fact ; and the 
eating of the apple in Paradise, not as a real deed, 
but a figurative mode of describing the degeneracy 
of man; and others of the same kind. 

I do, he said ; and thus our belief in the plainness 
and simplicity of Scripture would be destroyed, and 
none would be supposed capable of understanding it 
but the wise and learned, and the interpretation of it 
would become a mystery, and be reserved in the 
hands of a few ; and thus the blessed word of God, as 



CHAP. IX.] 



USE OF WRITING. 



235 



committed to writing, would be deprived of one of 
its chief uses, the power of reaching the poor at all 
times and in all places. 

And so, ultimately, I continued, we might be tempt- 
ed to the same guilt with the Romanists, of shutting 
up the Bible from the people. 

We might, he said. 

This then, I proceeded, is another fault to be 
guarded against in studying the Scripture by the 
light of the creeds. We may believe that in all ; we 
must believe that in very many parts, of its history as 
well as of its doctrines, there is a double meaning — one 
more obvious to the eye — common facts, simple nar- 
ratives for instance — the other spiritual, and alluding 
to the great mysteries of the creeds. Let us guard 
against denying the former to be as real and as true 
as the latter, and not sink and obliterate the truth of 
the type in the grandeur of the thing typified. 

And do you think, said the Missionary, that the 
whole Bible is thus full of allusions to Christ and his 
Gospel ? 

We may not rashly, I said, speak too generally of so 
vast a subject, when we may know so little ; but 
perhaps we may be better able to see how far such 
a view may be carried safely and with sobriety, and 
at the same time the Brahmin may be led to observe 
some other remarkable features and evidences of a 
divine origin and authority in the Church, by ex- 
plaining to him more distinctly the nature of the 
contents of the Bible. Shall we do this to-morrow ? 

Willingly, they both said. And we then sepa- 
rated. 



236 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [CHAP, X. 



CHAPTER X. 

My friend, I said, when we met the next day, when 
I gave you the little Bible the other morning, you 
looked at it at first with something like contempt : it 
seemed but a small space to contain such a treasure 
of wisdom and goodness as we believe is wrapped up 
in it. Perhaps the fallacy which deceived you is 
shared by many who are much more familiar than 
yourself with its contents. You naturally suppose 
that the Bible is one book, because it is brought to 
you in one condensed form. 

I certainly did suppose this, said the Brahmin. 

And you almost inferred, perhaps, that it was 
written by a single author, whoever it might be, 
whether inspired or not, as is supposed to be the case 
with your principal Vedas. 

I did infer it. 

The real name of the Bible, I said, is not the Bible or 
book, (for the word Bible means book,) but the Bibles 
or books ; for, though in so small a compass, it con- 
tains a considerable number of distinct treatises, 
written by a considerable number of distinct authors ; 
and I have sometimes wished that all these were occa- 
sionally printed and published separately, just as the 
w T orks of separate heathen authors ; for I think it 
would bring home more clearly to the minds of men 
some facts of no little importance. 

What are these ? he asked. 

One is, I replied, that supposing these several 
tracts or treatises to have been written by different 



CHAP. X.] ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



237 



persons, (and from tradition as well as from the 
language, tone, allusions, style, and other circum- 
stances, such as occasional discrepancies in incidental 
notices, we know this to be the case,) we have so 
many distinct testimonies to the truths which they 
contain, and which all point to the Gospel ; and in 
the testimony of numbers, we know that there is 
great weight. Fur instance, any fact in history is 
received without scruple, on the attestation of a very 
few writers. We have in Europe a city which many 
centuries ago was overwhelmed and buried in the 
earth, and not long since it was discovered, and ex- 
cavations were made, and among other things, a 
library was dug up. Now, I suppose, that in this 
library a book was found speaking of a particular 
fact of which we had never heard before, treating it 
as a matter of notoriety, shaping a consistent story 
upon it, and bearing all the ordinary marks of veracity. 
Before this book is laid aside, let there be dug up 
another by a different writer, repeating the same fact 
substantially, with perhaps some additional features, or 
alluding to it generally as a truth universally acknow- 
ledged. Let this be followed by a third, and that by 
a fourth, and that by a fifth, and that again by 
twenty others, all written by different hands, on dif- 
ferent topics, for different purposes ; some in poetry, 
some in prose — some narratives, others prayers — some 
letters, others predictions — some containing codes of 
laws, others maxims of prudence — some ceremonies of 
religion, others hymns of praise, yet all referring to the 
same fact, and taking it as their basis — do you not 
think that long before you had perused even the sixth 
book, thus exhumed, you would acknowledge, without 
a doubt, that the fact thus alluded to was true ? 
However unlike it might be to anything which you 
had experienced yourself, do you think you could 
resist the evidence thus accumulated ? 



238 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



[CHAP. X. 



Certainly, he said, the evidence would be very 
strong. 

Remember this then, I said, when you take up the 
Bible, or the Books. Read each treatise separately, 
mark how they differ in style, subject, and all the 
other circumstances which denote a different origin ; 
then observe, if they do not all agree in taking, as the 
foundation of their declarations, one great fact. 

What is that ? asked the Brahmin. 

It is, I said, that Almighty God has been pleased to 
reveal himself to man ; and that these individual 
writers have all been ministers and messengers in 
that revelation. I am declaring to you now that the 
Church, of which I am a minister, is a messenger from 
God, charged with a regular commission to declare to 
you his nature, his laws, and his promises, and to 
demand that you acknowledge her as such, and 
prepare yourself to believe, obey, and accept them. 
But these books contain records, and documents, and 
narratives of a number of other persons, who all make 
the same declaration with respect to themselves. If an 
ambassador came from one king to another, and any 
doubt existed as to his title and credentials, it would be 
something if the ambassador could produce in his own 
possession, and peculiarly belonging to him, a number 
of letters and other writings and papers from those 
persons who had before this been employed by the same 
king in similar negotiations, and in which he could 
point out many things which especially prophesied of 
himself as a subsequent agent to be employed in them. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. 

Little doubt, I said, in such a case would exist as 
to the fact of such negotiations having been before 
this carried on. So much at least would be admitted ; 
and this once granted, the question as to the autho- 
rization of the particular ministers would soon be set 
at rest. In the case before us, we have discussed this 



CHAP. X.] 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



239 



point already, when speaking of the commission 
which I claim to have received by succession from 
the Apostolical body. 

The Missionary seemed here to look up, as if he 
began to see the importance of this truth merely as a 
matter of evidence. 

But, I said, ,in reading the Holy Scripture-, you 
must bear in mind another very remarkable fact. 
These writers are not writers of any one age ; they 
form a line of witnesses reaching back to at least 
three thousand three hundred years ago, and continued 
connectedly for a period of at least twelve hundred. 

You speak, said the Brahmin, of three thousand years 
as a period of great antiquity ; but what is that compared 
with the duration of cur system, or the age of the 
world, as it is given in our sacred books ? 

It is nothing, I said ; a drop of water in the 
ocean. But, my friend, the dates and ages which 
you find in your sacred books stand alone. I do not 
say, yet, that they are mere fictions and falsehoods, for 
this may be to speak more positively than is right, in 
cases where we may have not been able to examine 
such matters very carefully ; but the very fact that 
few persons have been made acquainted with your 
books, but yourselves, is certainly a reason why we 
may hesitate to allow a fact merely on their own 
statement. Ler us, however, enter more fully into 
this part of the subject. 

Willingly, he said. 

We believe then, I proceeded, both of us alike, 
that in the beginning of the world, when man was 
created — whether that event took place millions of 
years back, or only about five thousand, as we suppose — 
the Great Creator and Ruler of the universe revealed 
to him the knowledge of his will. 

We do, he said. 

You do not imagine, I continued, any more than 



240 ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [CHAP. X- 



we do, that the human race sprung out of nothing ; or 
that our first parents rose out of the earth of themselves ; 
or that man is only a more advanced development of 
some inferior animal, which again was itself a spon- 
taneous development from a vegetable or a stone. 
Excuse me for speaking of such things, as if it were 
possible that such follies should even have been ima- 
gined by you. We, indeed, in Europe, have witnessed 
men who professed to be philosophers, and have pro- 
pounded such theories ; but I believe in this country 
these singular aberrations of reasoning have not yet 
been received or encouraged. 

The Brahmin smiled, as if he thought that nations 
among whom such theories were propounded had 
gained but little by their so-called enlightenment. 

You would say, I suppose, to such men, as we do, 
that our experience at least shows us but one mode 
in which the human race is now continued, which is by 
the birth of the child from the womb of its mother-; 
and that unless we like to give credence to all the 
idle tales which human fancy may invent, without 
even attempting to prove them, we must not depart 
from this experience, or acknowledge any other mode, 
certainly without adequate authority for believing it. 
And they, you will observe, must listen readily to 
your proposal, for they themselves reject every state- 
ment in the Gospel which they have not experienced 
themselves. When, therefore, they produce us a well- 
attested instance of a man growing up out of nothing, 
or of a plant wishing to have wings, and so becoming 
a bird, or of a bird by an effort of volition changing 
itself into a man, we shall be prepared to listen to 
these hypotheses, instead of being inclined, as now, to 
deliver such theorists into the safe custody of their 
friends as unhappy lunatics. 

The Brahmin assented. 

But if we adopt this principle, I said, we must at 



CHAP. X.] 



ANTIQUITY 



OF REVELATION. 



241 



last, however long the intervening period, come back 
to a time when man was originally created in a dif- 
ferent way. And then he may have been formed as an 
infant or as a full-grown man with all his faculties. 
Which shall we prefer ? 

I suspect, said the Brahmin, we should find it diffi- 
cult to explain how the present generation of men 
could have ever come to life, if their first parent had 
been originally furmed as an infant. 

Very difficult, I said. But child or man, it would 
be the same, unless we supposed that the same hand 
which created, also watched over him ; gave him know- 
ledge, informed him of his duty, supplied his wants, 
communicated his will to him, not by experience or 
reasoning, but by a direct revelation. It would, for 
instance, be difficult to imagine how a man, without 
experience, could know the nature of food, or the 
right means of guarding himself from the inclemency 
of the weather, or the use of the many things which are 
requisite for the preservation of his life ; all which things 
human beings are not taught like animals by instinct, 
but learn by communication from each other, and by 
gradually improved and extended experience. 

It would seem impossible, he said. 

Perfectly impossible, I continued, under any such 
system as we are acquainted with at present ; and 
until we receive information from proper authority, we 
are not reasonably entitled to suppose the existence 
of any other ; and the difficulty would not be dimi- 
nished by supposing the first man to have been formed 
in full possession of his adult strength ; for this very 
strength would rather increase his danger. Imagine, 
I said, the mind of a child in the body of a giant. 
Do you suppose that his powers of locomotion and 
destruction would lead him to evil or to good ? 

Let us not dwell, said the Brahmin, any longer on 
such idle notions as these, for we are wasting time 

PART I. Y 



242 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [CHAP. 



in refuting them. No man can give a rational, or 
even probable account, bow the human race has been 
preserved, without implying necessarily that at the 
first he was provided with the knowledge which he 
required for the support of his life, as we now are pro- 
vided with it, bv a superior power communicating to 
him information which he could not acquire by him- 
self, except by long experience, before the comple- 
tion of which experience he w r ould have perished from 
want, and in obtaining which experience every step 
was likely to end in his destruction. 

Yes, I said ; few children, or adults either, would 
continue long in life, if they had nothing but ex- 
perience, confirmed, as it must be, by repeated experi- 
ments, to prove that poison would cause death, and 
that fire would burn up the body, and water would 
suffocate, and iron wound ; and if they need external 
information on these points, do they need less inform- 
ation on higher questions ? They have souls as 
well as bodies, souls that have affections all tending 
to some other Being, all struggling to discover and 
embrace a higher, purer, all-perfect, all- one, and all- 
powerful soul like to their own in all things, save 
in weakness and corruption. Will you leave them 
without a knowledge of this Being ? And those souls 
are undisciplined and impetuous, following each 
impulse of the senses and the feelings, without care 
or power of resistance ; often without seeing the mis- 
chief into which they are rushing ; and yet that mis- 
chief, in far as we see in nature, is without remedy. 
A sin once committed, begets others ; and a heart once 
polluted, can never, by its own efforts, become pure. 
And excess of any kind leads to more excess, often to 
death. While we guard him from destroying in 
ignorance and thoughtlessness his animal life, shall 
we take less care of his spiritual ? 

I think not, said the Brahmin, 



CHAP. X.] ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



243 



And what, I said, is the nature of sin, against 
which we must caution and endeavour to protect him ? 
Is it not disobedience to the will of God? Is not all 
sin disobedience; — want of conformity to his will, who 
made all things, and made them all for good ? 

It is, he replied. 

And how then can we "keep him from sin without 
placing before him the will and the nature of that 
Almighty Being — his promises upon obedience, and 
his threatenings on rebellion ? 

I know not, said the Brahmin. 

How, I said, could any knowledge whatever be 
conveyed to him, without conveying to him in some 
way or another at the same time a knowledge, and 
therefore a revelation, of its author? For if the know- 
ledge related to the works of God, these works indi- 
cate his nature ; for no intellect creates things except 
after some type and pattern within itself. And if it 
related to his will, and promises, and threatenings, 
this also would be still more a revelation of his mind. 

But might not it be suggested, said the Missionary, 
that the knowledge of God given to man at the first, 
was given, as it were, secretly, and in instincts, dif- 
ferent perhaps from the instincts of animals only in 
their being addressed to higher objects? What we 
understand by a revelation generally is an extraor- 
dinary appearance of God to man, in forms or under 
symbols visible to the senses, as when our Lord came 
upon earth, or on the mountain blazing with fire 
when God showed himself to Moses. I am not speak- 
ing of myself of course, but that we may sift the ar- 
gument thoroughly. 

It is not for us, I answered, to limit the methods 
by which it may please Almighty God to communi- 
cate his blessings to mankind. But here again, if we 
confine ourselves to experience, I think, we shall find 
many objections to such a view r as you suggest. 

In the first place it is not a matter of hypothesis, 

Y 2' 



244 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [CHAP. X. 



but a matter of experience, that God does give us a 
knowledge of himself within our own minds. He 
has formed them not to be content with anything that 
they see here of power, goodness, or wisdom — not to 
stop short of absolute perfection in the imaginations 
which they form of that all-perfect Being with whom 
they desire to be united for ever. And they bear also 
within them deeply engraved, and. never to be obli- 
terated, the declarations of his will. For we cannot 
sin without fearing punishment, or feeling shame, in 
the presence of our fellow-beings ; and even in the 
most hardened minds, where these notions seem 
wholly extinguished, they are yet only suspended ; 
and shame and fear are not felt for the time, simp]y 
because the wicked man is able so to turn or occupy 
his thoughts, as to exclude the consciousness of his 
relation to those beings, in whose presence he would 
naturally feel them. These instincts, then, are one 
revelation of God to his creatures. But this we know 
is not sufficient. These universal notions, these 
lofty aspirations, these indelible feelings, are only the 
germs of that knowledge of God, which is required, 
whether for the perfection of our intellect, or for the 
control of our passions. They lie in the mind like 
those written symbols, w T hich are only brought out 
and made legible by gradual heat. The child is 
scarcely conscious of them ; certainly is not able to 
refer to them as a precise rule of thought and action. 
And these -affections and desire of infinity so deeply 
seated, so burning, so impatient of delay or restraint, 
are as the poets of old have described them, blind ; they 
wander about restlessly from object to object, fixing 
themselves on the first that meets their eye, exhaust- 
ing themselves on it without thought, and waking up 
from a momentary dream to find it worthless, or full 
of poison. And these stings of conscience, fear, and 
shame, and all the agonies of remorse, rouse them- 
selves not until too late — until crime is committed and 



CHAP. X.] ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



245 



the talisman of the soul is broken — humanly speak- 
ing — for ever. O, my friend, do we, dare we trust 
to this inward revelation alone, to give man the 
knowledge of his God ? Is it sufficient for a child 
now ? Could it have been sufficient for a new-created 
man at any time? Has not God provided something 
more than this, in the present system of the world ? 
And, if we argue from our present experience, (and 
on what else can we reason ?) must we not suppose 
that he provided something more at the first creation 
of our race ? 

And what is this provision ? said the Missionary. 

The provision, I replied, of parents — a power liv- 
ing and breathing, full of affection, and personality, 
an independent agent to stand over the child, as the 
Church stands over the Christian ; telling it of good 
and evil ; just as the Church tells us of truth and false- 
hood, before we can learn them from the bitterness of 
our own experience ; putting into its mind counterparts 
of those great truths which are virtually sealed up 
within it, even when lying in the cradle, that it may 
read even in its tender days, and with its half-blind 
eyes, the principles and facts, let us call them the 
creeds and catechisms of morals, which, as it ad- 
vances in goodness, will come out from within itself 
— and it will find, that all which the parent gave it 
it really possessed before, without being conscious 
of its wealth. Moreover, the parent, and the Church, 
stand over us armed with power to prophesy, and 
alarm, and encourage, and punish, and reward ; 
and this power of prophecy they use to warn us 
from the danger which besets us, and to save us 
from learning its nature only by our own ruin. And 
we believe (is it a vain belief — is it contrary to our 
present experience of the dealings of God with man 
— contrary to our own practice with our own newly- 
created children — inconsistent with any notions of 

y 3 



246 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [cHAP. X. 



the goodness and wisdom of Providence ?) — we believe 
that Almighty God never has left mankind without 
such tutors, and guardians, and prophets ; and that 
when, in the beginning of the world, this power was 
not delegated by him to parents, it was exercised by 
Himself personally, that is by our blessed Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Yes, said the Missionary, turning to his Bible, 
we believe " that the Lord God himself formed man 
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos- 
trils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." 
This is our history of man's creation. And we believe 
that " the Lord God took the man, and placed him in 
the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it 1 and 
that he personally commanded him to abstain from 
that which would work his death — that he denounced 
the penalty of death on his transgressions — that he 
talked with man himself, judged him himself for his 
disobedience, sent him forth himself from the garden 
of Eden — himself supplying the place of those needed 
mediations and guardianships, which are now intrusted 
by him to the hands of men his ministers. 

And to what end would you bring this argument ? 
said the Brahmin. 

I would tell you, I said, that from that time to the 
present, there has been but one continued revelation in 
the world — that the Gospel, which we now offer to you, 
is only the developement and realization of the com- 
munication made by Almighty God to our first parents. 
It has been expanded from time to time, committed 
to successive ministers, exhibited now in types and 
shadows, now in realities and substance ; but Chris- 
tianity is the oldest religion in the world, for it began 
with the creation of man. 

The Brahmin seemed surprised. I thought, he 



1 Gen. ii. 15. 



CHAP. X.] ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



247 



said, that your religion was only 1S00 years old; and 
new religions we cannot acknowledge; we abide by 
the faith of our fathers. 

And so, I said, do we; and so have Christians 
from the beginning ; and such has always been the 
command of God. " Remove not the ancient land- 
mark, which thy fathers have set," 1 is the constant 
language of our holy books. " Hearken unto thy father 
that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she 
is old." 2 " A wiseman heareth his father's instruction, 
but a scorner heareth not rebuke." 3 " Hear, ye chil- 
dren, the instruction of a father, and attend to know 
understanding. For I give you good doctrine ; for- 
sake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, 
tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He 
taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart 
retain my words, keep my commandments and live." 4 
And for this very reason I wished to carry you back 
to the beginning of the world — that I might show 
you how from thence we trace one continued, unbroken 
stream of divine revelation down to the present day — ■ 
and that contained in the Bible. 

But this is our boast also, said the Brahmin. 

Whether your boast be just or not, I said, as a 
matter of fact, we may inquire presently ; but in lay- 
ing it down as the foundation of your religion, I 
think there is much wisdom. 

And why? said the Missionary, who seemed to be 
perplexed with my observations. 

We, who are Christians, I said, know it to be 
wisdom, because so much stress throughout the Scrip- 
tures is everywhere laid on obedience to parents, and 
on adherence to the faith which we have been taught ; 
but the Brahmin would defend himself on other 
grounds — grounds of reason ; and, I think, I should 

1 Prov. xxii. 28. Prov. xxiii. 22. 

3 Prov. xiii.l» * Prov. iv. 1. 



24S 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [cHAP. X. 



be much inclined to agree with him in his general ar- 
gument, though I might not agree in his particular 
facts. But we must ask him to give his own reasons. 

I would rather, said the Brahmin, hear you, than 
speak myself. 

If 1 then, I proceeded, were the Brahmin, I should 
defend myself in this manner — that the Almighty 
God is unchangeable, and true — that he must have 
made to man at his first creation some revelation of 
his nature and his will — that this revelation could 
only have contained the truth — that therefore no sub- 
sequent revelation could be given, which would con- 
tradict it — and therefore he who can trace his religion 
1o the beginning of the world, and to express revela- 
tion from God at that time, is in possession of the 
truth, and is bound to reject all new doctrines as 
fake; and, I think, he might argue strongly for the 
same duty, upon the inexpediency of allowing the old 
chain of tradition and education to be broken — of 
setting up a new dynasty as it were to supersede 
a prior one. And he would point to the history of 
man, and to the laws of our nature, and show that 
such breaks and fractures were contrary to the true 
principles of government, and dangerous to society, 
and temptations to self-will, and presumptions against 
the foresight, and consistency, and power of the Being 
who had recourse to them, and therefore derogatory 
to the honour of Almighty God. And he w ? ould show 
that all real progress in the world was produced by 
rest. " Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord," 3 
is the voice of nature to us all, as well as the voice of 
Moses to the Israelites when they were overtaken by 
their enemies. " Our strength is to sit still." 2 " In re- 
turning and rest must we be saved ; in quietness and 
in confidence is our strength." 3 The seed will not 



1 Exod. xiv. 13. 



2 isa. xxx. 7. 6 Isa. xxx. 15. 



CHAP. X.] ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. 



249 



take root, unless it remain undisturbed in the ground ; 
the foot cannot move, until it is planted firmly on 
some unshaken foundation ; the body does not grow, 
except by attaching new substance to the old and ori- 
ginal fabric ; we cannot reason till our premises are 
fixed ; we cannot see, or measure distances, or guide 
our footsteps, without some unshaken line, by which 
to rule our course. So knowledge grows out of know- 
ledge ; so generation is propagated from generation ; so 
kingdoms are preserved by fixed succession ; so wealth 
accumulates by hereditary transmission ; so fami- 
lies are held together by adherence to one common 
stock ; so virtue is conformity to an established law ; 
so laws themselves are preserved and enforced by 
maintaining certain grand fundamental maxims, the pa- 
triarchs and progenitors of whole statute-books. Is not 
all truth and all goodness one — one in space and one in 
time — not affected by the changes of hours or persons, 
or by the shifting vicissitudes of our temporal concerns ; 
but, like the soul of man, spreading itself out through 
all successions, itself eternal, and entering into all 
forms of things, itself unchanged ? And vast as the 
multitude of its offshoots, it is itself still one. Is it 
not like the tree, which the poet describes ? — and in 
trees be assured there is more of thought and mean- 
ing than we are willing to imagine. It is a tree to 
which Christ himself has likened the kingdom of God, 
which begins in the smallest of seeds, and ends in 
spreading a shelter for the fowls of the air beneath 
its branches. 

Altius ac penitus terrae defigitur arbos: 

JEsculus, in primis, quae quantum vertice ad auras 

^Etherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 

Ergo non hyemes illam, non flabra, neque imbres 

Convellunt ; immota manet. multosque nepotes 

Multa virum volvens durando saecula vincit. 

Turn fortes late ramos, etbrachia tendens 

Hue illuc, media ipsa ingentem sustinet umbram. 

Virgil, Georgic ii. 2S9. 



250 



ANTIQUITY OF REVELATION. [CHAP. X. 



The Brahmin listened ; and when I had finished, 
reminded me that he was not acquainted with the 
language of the verses which I had quoted. 

I am scarcely sorry, I said, that I should have "been 
led on to make such a mistake, if it gives me the op- 
portunity of reminding you that one great part of our 
English education is the study of other languages he- 
sides our own ; and particularly of those ancient lan- 
guages which have brought us acquainted with the 
largest extent of contemporaneous and other history, and 
enable us, by communitywith many other nations in one 
common learned tongue, to reap the fruits of our com- 
mon researches into the records of all antiquity. 
Will you remember this as we proceed in our discus- 
sion ? 

I will, he said. 

Supposing then, I continued, that we agree in these 
general principles— First, that a religion revealed by 
God must be superior, and have higher claims to our 
obedience than one reasoned out by man ; and, second- 
ly, that the oldest revelation must possess an authority 
which may be extended, but is not likely to be de- 
stroyed, by a subsequent one — our next question should 
be, where are we to look for the most ancient revealed 
religion in the world? And, undoubtedly, you would 
come forward, and urge your claims among the first. 

We should, said the Brahmin. 

And we also, we Christians, should come forward 
likewise, and make the same claims. Shall we bring 
them before a court of justice, and try their respective 
merits upon the same principles, which are allowed in 
all similar questions of precedency of date and privi- 
leges ? 

Willingly, said the Brahmin. 

And first of all, I said, the Christian would pro- 
duce his Bible. Let us see what attestation it bears 
to him, and then ask if you possess anything at all 
to be compared with it. 



CHAP. X.] 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



251 



He would say to the judge, I have in my pos- 
session a number of distinct records and documents, 
bound up together in this little book. They are of 
different dates and periods ; and by them I can trace 
Christianity from this time to the beginning of the 
world. And first I produce before you the latter por- 
tion of this collection, (for it is divided into two,) and 
which is called the New Testament. It contains four 
several accounts of certain transactions, conversations, 
instructions, and miracles which took place 1800 
years ago ; and of which our blessed Lord is the 
centre, and- chief character. They are in fact short 
statements of the principal events in his life upon 
earth. These are followed by a brief outline of the 
principal proceedings of some of his disciples, who 
went out, according to his command, to found 
Churches, and to preach the Gospel to all nations, 
After this you will find a number of letters written by 
certain of these disciples to the Churches which they 
had founded ; and the whole series closes with a mys- 
terious and singular prophecy, very difficult to be 
seen through ; but which has evidently a close con- 
nexion with the preceding documents, and closes in 
a very solemn and awful way the whole collection ; or, 
as we term it, the Canon of Scripture ; that is, all 
those works which we believe to have been especially 
inspired by Almighty God; and in which we consider 
ourselves bound to seek the knowledge of his revela- 
tion — proving from them cur creeds, and deriving from 
them primarily all onr other declarations of religion. 

And the judge, said the Brahmin, would then de- 
mand of you to prove that these were genuine, and of 
the date to which you assign them ; and even then, 
they would enly carry you back to 1800 years, and 
not to the beginning of the world. 

He would, I said ; and it would be my business to 
produce the evidence. I should first bring forward a 



252 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. [CHAP. X 



number of Bibles printed in different years, with dif- 
ferent types, with different modes of spelling, all in- 
dicating a peculiar age ; with these I should adduce 
declarations of the Church expressing her anxiety to 
preserve the Scriptures unmutilated, and uncorrupted 
by the slightest human addition ; and also the same 
declarations, and quotations from the Scriptures, in the 
works of contemporary authors of the respective periods. 
I should show, by the practice of the Church at each 
point of time, that these Scriptures were open docu- 
ments, read in the public services, familiar to Christians, 
accessible to all ; that the precise number of them was 
fixed and known, and that a solemn curse was held to 
be denounced against any one who should add to, or 
take away from them. I should thus show that it 
would have been impossible for any one during all 
this period, from the first printed Bible to the time of 
the last publication of it, to have introduced into it any 
document which was not already contained in it, be- 
cause the attempt must have been immediately de- 
tected, and condemned in the most solemn manner, 
by the express declaration of the very Church who 
alone could have the power of introducing it. 

In the same manner I should follow up the New 
Test ament ; showing that the same books were quoted 
from, appealed to, recognised as having been handed 
down, acknowledged as inspired, publicly read, fami- 
liar to students, guarded with the same curses, marked 
out in the same list, at least in all substantial points, 
up to about the fourth century after Christ, when 
the Canon of Scripture was closed and settled, and all 
these writings were put together into one volume as 
we possess them at present. 

Still following them up beyond this period, I should 
exhibit these same works separately quoted, appealed 
to, large extracts made from them, with all the other 
marks of publicity — such as employment in divine 



CHAP. X.] 



THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



253 



service, and reverent and scrupulous care exhibited 
towards them, in a number of separate, distinct 
Churches, all of whom professed a belief in their 
genuineness, at the same time that they made a wide 
distinction between such works as they held to be in- 
spired, and others, mere compositions of men. And 
I should lay greater stress upon this agreement at 
such a time, before the canon of Scripture had been 
finally settled, because the claims of each separate epistle 
or tract must then have been weighed and under- 
stood with far more scrupulousness and exactness 
than when they all were brought together into one 
volume. In this way I reach the times of the persons 
to whom they are attributed ; and finding, on ex- 
amining them, so many declarations warning men 
against introducing any new doctrine, or receiving any 
new teacher, and commanding us uniformly to adhere 
to the tradition, whether oral or written, of the Apo- 
stles, I cannot conceive it possible that at any period a 
writing should have crept into the Church, without 
sufficient historical testimony to prove its genuineness. 

After this, I should be quite willing to confirm this 
historical testimony of the Church by the internal 
evidence of the books themselves : I should read the 
letters to the judge of the question, and ask if they 
seemed natural, unaffected, and such as were likely 
to be written by and to the parties whose names are 
assigned to them. They profess to be written to 
Churches already established ; consequently you will 
find them destitute of any such precise, definite ex- 
position of Christian doctrine as you expected to find. 
They contain no creed ; the Creed was already in 
the possession of those Churches ; but they are full of 
incidental allusions to it, commanding a rigid adhe- 
rence to it, and setting forth, at large, doctrines pre- 
cisely the same. They draw out no system of discipline ; 
for the Churches had been already constituted ; but 

part i. z 



254 



THE EPISTLES. 



[chap. X. 



they make mention of various officers as already exist- 
ing; they suggest certain additional rules for the pub- 
lic service ; they warn against certain abuses which 
had crept into the administration of the most solemn 
Christian mysteries ; they regulate and reason on the 
nature of certain miraculous gifts, which were then 
common in the Church, such as the faculty of speak- 
ing languages which the speaker had never learned 
in his youth. And they allude to these (as indeed the 
Scriptures throughout allude to miracles) in a strangely 
quiet and indifferent tone, speaking of them almost 
disparagingly, in comparison with moral goodness, 
and alluding to them as ordinary occurrences, without 
in the least endeavouring to adduce them as evidences 
of Christianity to persons not acquainted with the facts 
themselves. These Epistles, I continued, are more- 
over written by different hands ; and accordingly they 
differ remarkably in character. One of them, for 
instance, alludes to those by another writer, as " con- 
taining things hard to be understood," 1 and which 
unlearned men wrested to their own destruction — a 
declaration rather calculated to shake the confidence 
of the reader in them, and therefore not likely to be 
inserted by a forger who wished to give weight to his 
publication. 

Shall I proceed, I said, with my enumeration ; or 
are you satisfied ? 

I would willingly hear all you have to say, replied 
the Brahmin. 

Some of them, I continued, were written by an 
apostle, St. John, from whose hand we possess two 
other documents ; one of them a collection of memo- 
randa, as it were, of certain portions of the life of our 
Lord, and the other the last document in the volume, 
which contains those mysterious revelations and visions 
before alluded to. And there is a singular accordance 
1 2 Peter iii. 16. 



CHAP. X.] 



THE EPISTLES. 



255 



in the tone of mind which is exhibited in all these ; 
particularly in the history and in the letter. This tone 
of mind, which is full of tenderness and love, and 
ardent affection for the person of our blessed Lord, is 
contrasted with that of another writer, St. Paul, from 
whom we received the greater part of these letters, 
and of whose journeys and labours in founding the 
very churches to which his letters were addressed, we 
possess a very detailed account in another short tract, 
written by another person, St. Luke. And there is such a 
wonderful agreement between this account and the let- 
ters — agreement in little incidental allusions, in dates, 
persons, places, modes of speaking and acting, refer- 
ences to peculiar circumstances, which we know from 
history to have existed just at that time, and only then, 
and which therefore would have escaped any one who 
was forging a work, or, if they had not escaped, would 
have been omitted as too little known to be worth in- 
serting, — that I think an impartial judge could not 
for a moment hesitate to believe both works to be 
genuine, and real narratives and allusions to facts. 
This argument has been drawn out very ingeniously 
in English, in Dr. Paley's 4 Horae Paulina?,' and is 
well worth your attention. 

I will procure and read it, said the Brahmin. 

You will observe also, I said, that these letters are 
addressed to several different classes of persons — some 
of them to Christians who did not understand the 
exact nature of the Gospel; some to persons who 
were living under it without a due sense of its holi- 
ness, and who required to be corrected for their sins ; 
others who had been so corrected, and repented ; 
others who had made great advances in holiness ; 
others w 7 ho had mistaken particular doctrines or pro- 
phecies. And I think this is one of the most remark- 
able features in the collection. For first, as they all agree 
substantially, as there is the same general elevation of 

z 2 



256 



THE EPISTLES. 



[chap X. 



mind, and singularly unearthly character in them all, 
the same tone of deep devotion, the same undoubted 
belief in the message which they declared, and the 
same earnest hope and longing for the hour of re- 
lease from this burden of life upon earth, so there 
is a singular freedom in the mode in which they treat 
and handle the doctrines they enforce, so as to adapt 
their arguments and their view of them to their several 
classes of hearers. I cannot of course draw out for 
you now instances of this, for it would occupy too 
much time. But observe the fact as you are reading 
the letters themselves ; and then imagine that you 
had yourself to forge a series of letters, all treating on 
the same subject, and that one of great extent and 
comprehension, and based on an assumption of facts 
which were purely imaginary ; and that in so doing 
you must avoid all formality all technical exposition 
of the very facts and doctrines which you wish to put 
forward ; that every allusion to these must come 
naturally ; that there must be no inconsistency in 
your statements in the midst of great variety ; and 
that you must guard against any confusion of names, 
or times, or places, while you refer to them frequently 
and specifically, and yet indirectly, in order to give to 
your composition an air of tnith. Endeavour, I say, 
as persons before this have endeavoured, to forge 
writings of this kind in the name of other persons, 
and then you will experience, as those other persons 
have experienced, how hard it is, or rather how im- 
possible, to escape detection. 

I will then add, I said, what I before alluded to, 
the elevation, purity, moderation, and holiness of the 
spirit which breathes in all these epistles ; and think 
if it be possible to reconcile this with the craft of a 
forger. Add that these letters profess to have been 
written at a period, when there existed a very exten- 
sive literature, not connected with Christianity, of 



CHAP. X.] 



THE EPISTLES. 



257 



which we possess large remains ; and these remains, 
instead of refuting them, exhibit a state of things 
wonderfully agreeing with their account. Add, what 
will to many appear less obvious, that they occupy a 
place in our series of sacred books, of the utmost im- 
portance in completing their utility ; for although the 
doctrines and facts of the Gospel had been placed in 
our possession by the teaching of the Apostles, the 
duty of the Church is moreover to build up or edify 
her children, deepening in their minds the impression 
of her truths, unfolding them by degrees, and regu- 
lating the application of them both to each other and 
to practice ; and unless we possessed some guide in 
this work, we might run into error. Now in the apo- 
stolical epistles it has pleased Almighty God to provide 
for us just such a guide. There is no cla?s of Chris- 
tian character with which we are brought into con- 
tact, of whom we may not find a counterpart in the 
persons severally to whom these epistles were ad- 
dressed. The party-spirited, the sinful, the penitent, 
the formalist, the afflicted, the heretically inclined, 
the truly pious, the lovers of wealth, the studiers 
of Scripture, the rationalist — all such the Apostles 
had before them, and have left to us records of the 
manner in which they dealt with them, and exam- 
ples which we must imitate. And this does not 
seem to have been done systematically and intention- 
ally ; but, as in so many other works of that Divine 
Providence who ordereth all things in the world ac- 
cording to his good pleasure, where we see only acci- 
dent and chance, so here also casual circumstances 
seem to have led to the writing of these letters, and to 
their preservation in one collection. And this very ac- 
cidental combination, leading to such an important re- 
sult, is itself singular and striking. When such things 
happen in common life, we recognise at once the hand 
of a supernatural agency ; and why not here ? These 

z 3 



258 



THE EPISTLES. 



[chap. X. 



are but a few of the circumstances which would strike 
a person who should examine these letters accurately 
and critically, as they ought to be examined, and as 
we examine any other book which we suspect not to 
be genuine. And yet I must warn you here, as 
throughout, that to take them up with this suspicion, 
is not only likely to mislead you in your inquiry, but 
is in itself illogical. 

Why ? said the Brahmin. 

Is there not, I said, a great difference between 
reading a statement with the preconceived hypothesis 
that it is true, or with one that it is false ? And in 
every inquiry which you pursue, must you not enter 
on it with one hypothesis or the other? And will not 
all your observations be made with reference to these ? 
You will look out keenly for every point which 
accords with your own previous supposition ; and it 
is easy to collect from every work a number of scat- 
tered intimations, which may lead some to the one hy- 
pothesis, and some to the other; for there is no fact 
in the world of which it is not possible to argue on both 
sides. And thus different persons, from studying pre- 
cisely the same books, will come to the most opposite 
conclusions: one mind gathers up all that tends to 
prove, another all that tends to disprove, and the rest 
is abandoned by each as of no value. It is therefore 
of the utmost importance that you should commence 
your inquiry with the right hypothesis. Take that 
one which is supported previous to inquiry by the 
strongest evidence ; and as you have the testimony of 
the Church, and of the body of Christians generally, 
to the genuineness of these Epistles, and no testimony 
against them — nothing, at the very most, hut some 
doubts and cavils, and the suggestion of possibilities 
against them — you cannot logically hesitate which is 
most entitled to be assumed, and held in your mind, 
loosely, perhaps as it were, and without being firmly in- 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



259 



corporated in your belief till confirmed by inquiry, but 
still taken and held. If you adopt the hypothesis 
that the Epistles are false, you will see in them nothing 
but that which may be forced into such a construction, 
and your conclusion will be false likewise. And I 
would add, that with the hypothesis that they are false, 
you will not even pursue the inquiry at all, however 
you may seem to do so. But of this more by and by. 

I understand your distinction, said the Brahmin. 

And now, I continued, shall we pass on to the next 
work which you will meet in the Bible ? It is a little 
narrative of the proceedings of the Apostles after they 
were left on the earth, and had commenced proclaim- 
ing the Gospel, and founding societies or churches of 
Christians, in obedience to the commands of their 
Lord. But the principal part of it is occupied with 
the travels and adventures of one of the principal 
apostles, St. Paul ; and there is something in his par- 
ticular character and position which deserves your 
attention. 

I am attending, said the Brahmin. 

St. Paul, then, I said, was not one of the immediate 
disciples of our Lord. He was originally a violent 
persecutor of Christians ; a good man, steady in ad- 
herence to his national faith, and in obedience to the 
strictest of its rules ; " keeping always a conscience 
void of offence both before God and man but fully 
persuaded that Christianity was false. This man, in 
the very heat of his persecutions against the Christians, 
all at once changed his conduct, came forward pub- 
licly, and professed his full belief in Christianity ; be- 
came its most devoted apostle and minister, and by 
his labours for many years spread it over the most 
distant regions ; and he accounts for his change re- 
peatedly, by narrating facts which he had witnessed. 
The letters, of which I spoke to you just now, are 
principally from him. But this is* not ail. Instead 



260 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. X. 



of being cordially received by the original Apostles, 
he seems to have been regarded with some little dis- 
trust ; sufficient at least to show that there was no 
collusion in his conversion. " They were all afraid 
of him, and believed not that he w T as a disciple." 1 
Even after they had examined the grounds of his con- 
version, and recognised that he had received a com- 
mission to preach the Gospel from the same Lord with 
themselves, and had assigned to him in consequence 
a particular portion of the work, 2 there seems to have 
been a lingering feeling which prevented an entire 
co-operation. I think you will observe this in the 
language in which St. Paul speaks of the other Apo- 
stles, and the other Apostles speak of and allude to him ; 
just such a feeling as is sufficient to keep their tes- 
timony entirely distinct, without destroying their 
unanimity. You will find St. Paul declaring in the 
most solemn way 3 that he had not derived his know- 
ledge of Christianity from the Apostles, but from Jesus 
Christ himself, by especial and abundant revelations. 
And this at a time when such a statement might natu- 
rally have offended the other Apostles — when he w r as 
contending against prejudices, the prejudices of Ju- 
daism, towards w T hich they were naturally inclined, and 
when his assertion might have been at once met and 
contradicted. We find not only that the general cha- 
racter of St. Paul's mind was different from that of the 
other Apostles, more learned, more intellectual, with 
more of grasp, and insight into the mysteries of truth, — 
that the whole line of his teaching was carried on in an- 
other direction — exhibiting the same truths, but a differ- 
ent mode of pressing and confirming them, — and that 
this led even to open though temporary disagreement. 
At the same time that St. Paul thus asserted his inde- 
pendence of the other Apostles, he professed the most 



1 Acts ix. 26. 



2 Gal. ii. 9. 



* Gal. i. 12. 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



261 



hearty union with them in faith, and in the bonds of 
Christian fellowship. He preached no new Gospel, 
he originated no new 7 forms, he distinctly refused to 
place himself at the head of a sect or party j 1 he pos- 
sessed the most wonderful powers of human eloquence 
and rhetoric, hut disclaims all influence from them ; 
he appeals to the miracles which he wrought as the 
proofs of his mission ; he demands the personal affec- 
tion of his children, as he calls his converts, but pro- 
hibits them from attaching themselves to him so as to 
lose sight of that Great Being whose minister he 
boasted to be. He made use of human learning at the 
same time that he cautioned them against a vain philo- 
sophy ; he possessed a deep knowledge of the most mys- 
terious relations of Christianity, and reserves them for 
the more advanced disciples in the Church ; and yet 
he lays no stress upon them in comparison with that 
simple belief and obedient practice which were open 
to the poorest and meanest. " Though I speak," he 
says, 2 " with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a 
tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of pro- 
phecy, and understand all mysteries and all knoAv- 
ledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could 
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 
and though I give my body to be burned, and have 
not charity, it profiteth me nothing." And then fol- 
lows a description of the spirit which he understands 
by charity ; and, if you would learn the true temper 
of a Christian mind, you cannot study it too often : — 
" Charity,'* he says, or Christian love, " suffereth long, 
and is kind ; charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not 
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself un- 
seemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 



1 1 Cor. iii. 4. 



2 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 



262 



THE ACTS. 



[CHAP. X. 



thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but re- 
joiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." And 
then he concludes, after speaking of other Christian vir- 
tues, " And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these 
three ; but the greatest of these is charity." And 
though thus affectionately- minded by his nature, he 
warns, and rebukes, and exhorts, and persuades men 
" by the terrors of the Lord," with an authority almost 
approaching to sternness. He labours earnestly and 
enduringly, with the hope of some great reward, even 
a crown in heaven ; but speaks of himself still with 
humility and fear, as one who might yet be a cast- 
away. He exhibits respect and deference for rank, at 
the same time that he is no " respecter of persons." 
In defence of the Gospel he risks his life, yet does not 
hesitate to save it, when he can do so without com- 
promising the faith. He becomes all things to all 
men ; adapts himself anxiously to all their prejudices, 
in order to win souls ; yet the moment the great truths 
committed to him seem involved, he withstands even 
one of the chief of the other Apostles face to face. 
Now T I think that a character like this, of such grasp of 
mind, so earnest, yet so balanced in its movements, so 
cautious not to lose sight of one principle while pursu- 
ing another, acting evidently under such a weight and 
sense of reponsibility, whose ^orks we have before us, 
to be examined and compared with letters of any other 
human being, (and think how letters tell the real state 
of the heart,) and whose conduct, consistent and re- 
gular throughout from the hour of his conversion, has 
offered not a single point of attack to the evil speaker — 
I think that such a character, when he came before 
a court of justice, might demand that his testimony 
should be received, when he simply narrated a fact 
within, his own experience, namely, the miracle w r hich 
converted him, and which he repeatedly narrates as 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



263 



the cause of all his conduct. And I think also that 
for any man so wicked, so insensible to the sin of tam- 
pering with the name of God, and his most holy 
truths, as to venture on concocting a lie and a forgery 
in the name of St. Paul, to have conceived such a 
character as his, and to have brought it out so un- 
designedly, yet so consistently and perfectly, in all its 
details and in all its forms, is an impossibility. Such 
as we are ourselves, such are the characters which we 
invent, and paint in our imagination. 
The Brahmin assented. 

We possess, then, I continued, a short account cf 
many of the proceedings of this great apostle, St. Paul, 
as well as of the other Apostles, particularly St. Peter, 
who was of a different character. And even this little 
fact is not unworthy of notice ; for those who are fa- 
miliar with literature — with works of fiction and poetry 
especially — know how difficult it is to conceive a num- 
ber of distinct personages, each with his peculiar cha- 
racteristics, and to preserve their consistency through- 
out; especially to mark these peculiarities by little 
slight touches, almost imperceptible to a common eye, 
and yet full of hidden meaning. And much of this 
you will find in the narratives of the Bible, which 
could scarcely be the result of premeditated design, 
because the points themselves are marked too faintly 
to arrest the attention, though sufficiently clearly to dis- 
tinguish the characters. And is it not, I said, a 
peculiar characteristic of truth that it does not put 
itself forward, does not attempt to defend or excuse 
itself uncalled for, or to exhibit to vulgar eyes the 
evidence on which it may be supported ? Men who 
know that they are speaking truth, do not suspect 
that others will doubt them. 

It is so, said the Brahmin. 

Allusions, therefore, and incidental hints, inferences, 
and statements, which imply the existence of facts, 



264 



THE ACTS. 



[CHAP. X. 



without directly bringing them forward, are the 
strongest arguments which can be adduced for the 
genuineness of a narrative or letter. 
I would not deny it, he said. 

And of such kind, I continued, -is the general in- 
formation, which the narrative of which I am speak- 
ing, the Acts of the Apostles, gives us as to many of 
their most important proceedings. For instance, in 
the present day, when many questions arise respecting 
matters of church government and ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline, we search with great interest, in the Acts of 
the Apostles/ as well as in their epistles, for some 
distinct outline of their regulations and ordinances. 
And the want of these has been so sensibly felt, that 
even a very few centuries after the first preaching of 
Christianity such formal rules seem to have been 
drawn up, and to have been honoured with the title of 
Apostolical Canons and Constitutions, though we have 
no authority for assigning the work directly to such 
a source. But this will prove to you how sensible the 
Church, as men, would be of the value of such a 
work, if authenticated. And if the Acts of the Apo- 
stles, which contain the history of the foundation of 
the Church, had been drawn up by human hands, 
they would undoubtedly have foreseen this want; and, 
wishing to lay down as distinct a rule as possible for 
the guidance of future ages, they would have framed 
in it something like that code of laws which was 
framed for the very purpose at a subsequent time. 
Instead of this, the Acts of the Apostles contains but 
little at first sight which bears directly upon this 
point. It alludes, indeed, to a number of practices, 
such as meeting together for prayer, the breaking of 
bread, the appointment of officers in the church in 
regular succession, the assembling on the first day of 
the week, the baptizing whole families, and others of 
the same kind; just as we find the Creed is alluded tc 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



265 



in the epistles, together with these same practices. 
But here, again, these intimations are rather useful in 
confirming and proving to us facts which we learn 
from another source, than in giving to us the first and 
direct information of them. Give to men, as the Church 
gave to them, the Apostles' Creeds ; and the apostolical 
doctrines of the Epistles will be clear to them, 
Give to them a general knowledge of the catholic prac- 
tice of the Church, attested by the same authority and 
in the same manner by which the Apostles' Creed and 
the Holy Scriptures are attested, and you will then 
easily discern the same practices in the intimations of 
the Acts. The Acts will confirm and prove, but I 
do not think they are the first source from which you 
are to derive, your knowledge of the practice of the 
Church. Do you comprehend me ? 
I do, said the Brahmin. 

And this very fact, I think, is remarkable. It is 
not only useful to be remembered that, by understand- 
ing the true intention of the Scriptures, you may read 
them rightly, and not be disappointed or perplexed by 
them ; but it is so unlike what mere human beings 
would do in founding a system of religion, and it is 
so consistent with the general tenor of the other parts 
of Scripture, that it may be regarded as no slight 
evidence that they came at the least not from man. 

I do not exactly see the reason of this, said the 
Missionary. 

Will you, I said, examine the history of all persons 
who have founded societies among men, and have in- 
tended to perpetuate them? They have known the 
instability of human characters, and the difficulty of 
binding them down to any code of laws ; and yet, un- 
less they are bound clown to such a code, a system 
founded on laws must soon perish. And having no 
confidence in men, or in their own power to compel 
their allegiance after death, the founders of such 

part i. 2 a 



266 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. X. 



societies draw up strict and minute ordinances, as ex- 
press as possible, and commit them to writing, as the 
surest mode of preserving and enforcing them. And 
yet in this are two great evils : for first, the laws, if made 
too prominent, come to be thought of more importance 
than the persons who administer them, until we are 
in danger of forgetting that in every system of society 
we are placed under living rulers, as well as under 
written rules ; and each man, by himself, takes up 
the laws, by themselves, interprets them according to 
his own fancy, thinks himself at liberty to censure 
every seeming deviation from them, and to condemn 
his rulers : and thus the bonds of society are loosened 
and broken by the very means taken to preserve them. 
And this happens in regulations of discipline just as 
in matters of doctrine, by the same cause — a wish to 
be rigidly precise and accurate, and a belief so com- 
mon to man that such precision and accuracy may be 
obtained by written words. Whereas words are in 
themselves vague and ambiguous ; they present dif- 
ferent ideas to different minds ; none of them are 
capable of being strictly defined ; and the more they 
are multiplied, the more combination of possible 
meanings may be formed from them, and therefore 
the more doubt is thrown on the one true meaning. 
I speak thus at length, because I think that a mistake 
on this point has led not only to much practical evil 
both in the Church and in more temporal affairs, but 
to great misunderstandings as to the proper nature, 
use, and construction of the Bible. I think. I con- 
tinued, that wherever you look, whether to the civil 
legislatures of the present day, or to religious com- 
munities, or to societies and judicatures for any pur- 
pose of life, you will find that disloyalty, and dissen- 
sion, and disorganisation walk hand in hand with the 
multiplication of written laws. And it must be so, I 
said, from this reason, that a writing appeals to the 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



267 



judgment of every individual who can read it; and 
every reader is thus erected into a legislator, and a 
censor on his governors. Shall I mention another 
evil ? 

If you please, said the Missionary. 

It is this, I said : a written law, to answer the pur- 
pose for which it is framed, must be minute and strin- 
gent, and obedience* to it must be enforced by very 
solemn sanctions ; but at the same time it must be 
adapted to the peculiar circumstances under which it 
is enacted. General laws, such as those of morals, 
we possess without any legislation. Particular laws 
only are wanted to be put in writing. But the cir- 
cumstances of life are perpetually changing ; and a 
particular law which may be good for one age, and 
country, and class of men, and condition of society, 
may be very unfit for another. And these changes 
cannot be foreseen and provided for, nor even speci- 
fied, from their multitude ; and thus it happens that 
in course of time an honest and conscientious ruler of 
society will find himself so tied up and embarrassed 
by the written injunctions of a former period, which 
have now become obsolete, and perhaps positively 
mischievous, that he must either, by adhering to the 
letter of them, destroy the spirit, and so perhaps de- 
stroy the society itself; or, by modifying and depart- 
ing from it at his own discretion, he will not only run 
the risk of tampering with his own conscience, and 
violating the oath which he swore to obey them, but 
he will also open a door to general laxity in the ob- 
servation of them, which will finally lead to the same 
result of overthrowing the institutions which they were 
created to guard. Do you comprehend this ? 

I do, said the Brahmin. 

And other evils, also, may be apprehended, I 
said. For to command the respect of the people 
who are placed under them, and to exercise autho- 

2 a 2 



•26 S 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. X. 



rity firmly, the heads of every society should pos- 
sess no slight degree of power, and liberty of action. 
They should not be fettered and tied down at every 
step, afraid to move lest they violate sume minute 
written law, and if they do violate it by mistake, or 
by the natural frailties of men, open to the most 
grievous charges from their inferiors, and deprived of 
confidence and influence. 

Certainly not, said the Brahmin. 

There would be wisdom, therefore, I said, in a 
system of government which never lost sight, in all 
its regulations, of the end of all government, which is 
society — a system, therefore, which took care to bind 
together all the different members of it by personal 
obedience, personal love, personal faith ; by all those 
feelings and affections which unite man to man ; a sys- 
tem which for this purpose placed the governors them- 
selves constantly before the eyes of the governed as 
the chief object of their interest ; which for this pur- 
pose also armed the governors themselves with con- 
siderable power, trusted them as persons worthy of 
ministering in so great a cause as the formation aud 
preservation of human society, and never willingly ex- 
posed them to the taunts, or even to the suspiciun, of 
those whom they were placed to rule. 

And yet, said the Missionary, might not such a 
system end in tyranny? 

This is one evil, I said, on the one side ; and there 
is an evil on the other of licentiousness. And where 
Almighty God has placed his power in the hands of 
men, and made them responsible to himself, I would 
far rather risk the chance of its abuse by them, 
than by others, who had no authority from God to 
exercise any power at all. Better is it to fall into the 
hands of God than into die hands of man. In one 
case we suffer while obeying Him, in the other while 
disobeying; and which is the wor^e ? 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



269 



The latter, certainly, said the Missionary. 

And thus, I said, it seems that Almighty God, 
having "been pleased to form a society upon earth to 
which he gave the name of his Church, and having 
appointed human rulers over it, and having wished to 
knit together all the bands and members of the body 
in strict union with its great Head, has done this 
through the means of his Apostles, and those who by 
them have been constituted in each country to fill 
their place, and execute their office. And he has placed 
with them the control of his Church, and the enforce- 
ment of its laws and discipline ; permitting to them 
all that latitude and liberty which is necessary for the 
preservation of their own personal authority, and 
through it for the preservation of the whole society ; 
and bidding us look to them chiefly and primarily, 
and not to written statutes. In one word, he has not 
fixed for them in words anything in relation to the 
government of the Church analogous to the Creed in 
relation to doctrine. 

And are they left, then, without any rule to guide 
them? said the Missionary. 

No, I replied : they have the Spirit of God within 
them ; a power to overrule their hearts and acts, and 
which supplies the influence required to give per- 
manence and regularity to their institutions, notwith- 
standing the infirmities of man, far better than that 
to which alone man can trust in framing human in- 
stitutions — written laws. 

Remember also that there is but one source from 
which they can derive their authority, which is the 
apostolical body ; and their connexion with this is 
preserved not only by a successive delegation of power 
from it, but by a constant reference to its practices 
and injunctions in all things. And thus the rule for 
the rulers of the Church in matters of church govern- 
ment is the same, in effect, as that which supplies 

2 a 3 



270 THE ACTS. [CHAP. X. 

them with the Creed and with the Scriptures. It is 
the practice of the Catholic Church ; that is, let me 
repeat it again, of as many as possible independent 
communities of Christians, tracing their powers, their 
doctrine, their ministry, and their origin to the Apo- 
stles, and united by this in one spirit, but not so 
merged in one as to destroy the value of their distinct 
testimony to what they had been taught and had 
practised. And in this practice they are bound to do 
nothing contrary to Scripture ; and for it, in all essen- 
tial points, they will find a great warranty in Scrip- 
ture ; but it will be a warranty rather of implication, 
conveyed rather in hints, in references, in allusions, 
than in direct declarations. Shall I give you some 
instances ? 

The Missionary assented. 

Thus, I continued, we baptize infants because such 
practice is " most agreeable with the institution of 
Christ;" but this institution "we retain;" 1 we found 
it in the Church, and find nothing in the Scriptures 
but what perfectly confirms it ; but, if the practice of 
the Church had been different, perhaps there is not 
anything in the Scripture so positive and so express as 
to require us imperatively to adopt it. Again, for the 
validity of the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
we believe that a certain form of consecration is 
requisite ; and such a form we use, having received it 
uninterruptedly from the ancient Church; and there is 
abundance in the Scriptures to bear out our belief 
that this form is agreeable to the institution of Christ. 
But if you departed from the Church, and searched 
in Scripture for some express declaration of it, the 
search might be easily perplexed. So, again, we 
perpetuate the Church under the government of three 
orders, bishops, priests, and deacons. Such is the 



1 Article xxvii. 



CHAP. X.] 



THE ACTS. 



271 



constitution to which we have succeeded ; and on 
tracing back the history of the Church, such we find 
to have prevailed throughout, and we can find no 
authority for any other. And I do not say that any 
person who reads the Scriptures candidly can doubt 
that such was the practice instituted in the times of 
the Apostles. But still the words used are capable of 
some ambiguity ; and those who have thrown aside 
the hereditary practice of the Church, and have pro- 
fessed to decide all questions solely by their own in- 
terpretation of the words of Scripture, are able to 
embarrass persons who are not well instructed. I 
will add another instance — the observance of the first 
day of the week, our Sunday. In the Scriptures, in- 
deed, there are frequent references made to the Apo- 
stles as meeting on that day ; and there are injunctions 
to set apart portions of our worldly goods upon it for 
the relief of the poor ; but we have no express command 
for it like that given to the Jews, of keeping holy the 
seventh day. Ajid thus persons have been led to 
doubt whether the observance of the first day is 
obligatory upon us — whether it is anything but a 
matter of expediency and convenience ; but we, who 
adhere primarily to the catholic practice of the 
Church, are satisfied with this authority as proving 
an apostolic institution ; and we bring in the allusions 
in the Scriptures, where their full weight must be felt, 
as simply confirmatory of a practice already in 
existence. 

The Missionary seemed more satisfied. And yet 
he could not refrain from making the usual objections 
to such a view. How then, he asked, if the first proofs 
and warranty of these practices are to be found in the 
records of the ancient Church, which are not like 
Scriptures in the hands of all men, but difficult to be 
procured, and by most persons impossible to be 
studied, how will the poor and ignorant be able to 



272 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. X. 



satisfy themselves of the correctness of the system 
under which they a^e bound to live ? They cannot go 
back to read the fathers, and the historical remains of 
Greek and Latin writers. Are they to be left without 
satisfaction ? 

You are suggesting, I said, an objection very com- 
monly made, and perhaps not easily answered in the 
present state of our minds. Perhaps there are great 
truths which we have recently forgotten, or have suf- 
fered to remain dormant, which alone could satisfy 
such a question, and which yet it would require much 
time fully to bring out. 

Shall we return to this point to-morrow ? 

I would willingly, said the Missionary, hear it dis- 
cussed fully ; for I think it is not only mixed up with 
the whole of the considerations which you have placed 
before us, but may be useful to the Brahmin in weigh- 
ing the evidences of Christianity. 

We will meet then, if you please, said I, to-morrow. 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



273 



CHAPTER XI. 

Vv t hen I reached our place of meeting the next 
morning, I found the Brahmin and the Missionary 
attentively watching a group of children, who were 
taking their exercise under the care of a nurse. The 
younger ones kept close to her, taking huld of her 
hand, listening to every thing she said, and obey- 
ing without questioning all that she ordered. And the 
Missionary could not help remarking on the happy, 
affectionate looks with which these innocent and do- 
cile infants (for they were scarcely more) looked up 
into their nurse's face, to catch what she addressed to 
them, and the fondness and satisfaction with which 
the nurse likewise looked down upon them. It was 
a sight which brought back many recollections to all 
our minds. 

And do you think, I said to the Missionary, that in 
the relation which subsists between these young child- 
ren and their nurse, there is anv happiness and good- 
ness ? 

Certainly, he said : w hat can be more full of happi- 
ness and goodness, than docility and obedience in a 
child, and affection and care in a parent, or in those 
who stand in the place of a parent? 

And perhaps, I said, the real object which so de- 
lights us in a sight like that before us, is, the trustful, 
simple-minded confidence or faith, with which the 
child looks up into the eye of its nurse, forgetful of itself, 
and seeing nothing but a power above it, into whose 
arms it willingly and peacefully throws itself to repose 
without a doubt or a struggle. And if we r.sked the 



274 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. XI. 



nurse what mostly moved and kept alive her affection 
for those children, she would answer, this same faith ; 
and the philosopher would answer the same, only 
adding that we cannot but love that which becomes a 
part of ourselves — cannot but cherish our own flesh ; 
and that it is this docile, child-like spirit of faith by 
which the weak are incorporated with the strong, and 
made a part of them— the ignorant with the wise, the 
young with the old, children w r ith their parents, sub- 
jects with their kings, and man with his God. 
It is so, said the Brahmin. 

And, I continued, addressing the Missionary, we 
know that " unless we receive the kingdom of God as 
little children, w r e cannot enter therein." 1 

I know it,- he replied. 

And yet, I said, if those children were grown up, 
that which is now so delightful and so good in them 
would be painful and evil. As they advance in years 
and faculties, it will become their duty to do what it is 
now their duty to abstain from ; it will be their duty to 
ask questions, to examine reasons, to quit the safe 
shelter of their nurse's arms, and venture out, I will 
not say by themselves, nor irreverently and indepen- 
dently as if they cast off all guidance, but under the 
direction of other persons, who will perfect them in the 
exercise of their powers. 

Certainly, said the Missionary. 

And w r hy, I said, this difference in their duty and 
their works ? 

Because, said the Missionary, their faculties are 
different, and the weak and ignorant must not venture 
on the trials which are reserved for the strong and the 
wise. 

Precisely so, I said. And would it then be any 
unworthy demand upon the faith of the Christian — 
any thing derogatory to his dignity as man, or coercive 
1 Unit, xviii. 3. 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



275 



of the freedom of his reason, if we told the poor and 
the unlettered, who were unable to study the records 
of antiquity, or to find in them the warrants for the 
practices of the Church, that they ought to rest content 
with the simple declaration of their Church, and not 
to suggest doubts, or seek information beyond the 
grasp of their faculties ? Would it increase their 
happiness and goodness, or the happiness and good- 
ness of the Church, who is their mother and their 
nurse, if we destroyed their docility and faith, and im- 
planted in them, instead, a restless, doubting, self- 
confident spirit, which would receive nothing and obey 
nothing but that which could be brought home to 
their own understanding and experience ? 

Surely, said the Brahmin, the Missionary would 
not break up all the elements of society, by encourag- 
ing doubt and disobedience in those who are only 
capable of learning and obeying ? 

And yet, said the Missionary, where, in the case 
which you put, is the security against an abuse of 
power on the part of the teacher ? 

Have we not my friend, I said, spoken of this already ? 
Is it not found, humanly speaking, in the provision of 
the same teacher, that those who are able to think and 
reason should be encouraged to do so ? If the Church, 
like the Roman system, discouraged education — prohi- 
bited freedom of thought in the more advanced of her 
children — refused to answer questions which implied 
the slightest unwillingness to receive any of her dic- 
tates blindly — placed under a ban all those who wavered 
in the least in their implicit subjection to her arbitrary 
decrees — even persecuted them to death, and made 
no distinction between the reception of doctrines which 
she advanced of herself, and doctrines which she re- 
ceived from others — then I think you might well be 
alarmed at the enforcement of a docility and faith, 
which might end m blinding the eyes and stifling the 
powers of the children, and in giving to their parents 



216 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. XI, 



or nurse an unbounded authority, which cannot fail in 
the hands of frail men to be abused, as we know it } 
has been abused. But the Church of England, re- 
member, while to her "babes and sucklings" — to 
those who, from weakness of age, or want of opportu- 
nity, or duller powers, are unable to prove all things 
to themselves — -she recommends as their best wisdom 
to be wise by the wisdom of their appointed teachers, 
and strong by their strength, endeavours to draw forth 
from all her children every latent power, encourages 
them to try those powers in following her into all the 
depths of knowledge, sacred and profane ; makes no 
selection of a particular class, into whose hands she 
would commit her secrets, with a pledge that they 
will use them only as she appoints, but throws them 
open to all ; and thus, in the freedom of the strong, 
she secures the safety of the weak. 

The Brahmin signified his approbation. 

And moreover, I said, if you remember what we 
said, that all teachers appointed by God are responsi- 
ble to Him — that their hearts are in his rule and 
governance, and that the prayers of his faithful, obe- 
dient people will always be heard — you will recognise 
here also, I think, a full and sufficient protection against 
any permanent abuse of power on the part of our rulers . 

And yet, said the Missionary, it has pleased God 
to permit that Popery should exercise its fatal influ- 
ence over the destinies of millions, and its heart has 
not yet been turned. 

Have, I replied, have prayers for release been made 
earnestly and faithfully, from those who are groaning 
under its burdens ? In one blessed country, England, 
we have to a great degree been rescued from it. But 
remember, also, that we have no right to expect such 
answers to our prayers, except where we are obeying a 
lawful authority. And when nations have thrown 
themselves under the dominion of the Pope, have they 
not been disobeying their lawful authority, their 



CHAP. XT.] 



THE ACTS. 



277 



King, and the heads of their own Church, whom God 
has really placed over them, not the bishop of Rome ? 
Have they not acted as those who leave their Churches, 
and choose teachers and rulers according to their own 
fancy, not asking which is the appointed minister of 
God, but which is most agreeable to themselves, and 
thus forfeiting the claim which they would otherwise 
possess upon the protection of Almighty God against 
the sins of his own delegated servants ? 

It may be so, said the Missionary. 

I fear it is so, I replied. But let us not wander 
from the subject on which we were speaking yester- 
day. 

You were suggesting to me, said the Brahmin, some 
rules for reading the Acts of the Apostles, so as to trace 
in them the evidence which they afford to the divine 
commission of the Church. 

Yes, I said. And this, I thought, was one of the 
most remarkable features in the work ; that although it 
is the chief historical record which we possess of the 
foundation of the Church, yet the notices of this founda- 
tion are rather incidental than direct ; indicating that 
there was to be another source through which our 
primary knowledge of it was to be attained, and thus 
keeping our eyes fixed on the Church as a personal 
guide and mother to us, towards whom we are to 
cherish all the feelings of love, respect, and gratitude, 
and faith, only confirming what she declares by the 
written evidence which she places in our hands, in- 
stead of forgetting our allegiance tt) the legislator, in 
too independent scrutiny of iaws according to our own 
private interpretation. Now granting that the Church 
really possesses the commission from Almighty God, 
to which she lays claim, this arrangement is perfectly 
natural and consistent. Shall I mention to you some 
other circumstances in the book of which we are 
speaking, which may deserve your notice ? 

part i. 2 b 



278 THE ACTS. [CHAP. XT. 

The Brahmin expressed his readiness to listen. 

I mentioned, I said, that m the Epistles we found 
incidentally suggested, and dropped, us it were, speci- 
mens of the mode in which the doctrines of the Gos- 
pel should be addressed and enforced to every class of 
baptized Christians. But there is another, and a 
preliminary work to be performed by the Christian 
minister ; one in which we are engaged at this 
moment, and this is the setting the same doctrines be- 
fore the different classes of heathens, or those who are 
still unconverted. And, I think, there are few things 
which all persons, when engaged in this work, and 
feeling its difficulty and responsibility, must so desire 
to possess, as some sketch of the mode adopted by the 
Apostles, and to be followed by ourselves. 

Assuredly, said the Missionary; and I have often 
studied the Acts of the Apostles with this view, but 
have not found in it so many clear directions as I could 
wish. 

And here again, I said, perhaps it was intended 
that the Church herself should be the person to teach 
us more directly and clearly the proper mode of per- 
forming the duty of preaching the kingdom of heaven 
to all mankind ; that from her lips we should receive 
technical and systematic directions for it, and only re- 
fer to the Scriptures to confirm them. Perhaps, I 
said, this would necessarily be the case, if our Church, 
that is, the individual members of it who fill its higher 
offices, and direct its operations, had always acted be- 
fore this on a gr%nd and comprehensive plan of 
Missionary labours. That we have not done this may 
be one of the crying sins for which one day God will 
call us to account ; and the cause of our neglect and 
coldness, next to our own sinfulness, may have been 
the melancholy divisions and weakness into which we 
fell in our fearful struggle against Popery. At this 
time you are aware that, blessed be God, we are 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



219 



beginning to rise up, and stand before Him, humbly, 
it may be hoped, as penitents for past lukewarmness ; 
yet praying Him to give us zeal to attempt, and wis- 
dom to plan, and perseverance to fulfil the task 
which He has laid upon us by giving us so vast an 
empire, to which we are bound to preach the Gospel. 
And perhaps, I said, we have had experience sufficient 
that for individuals to commence such a work, earnest 
as their zeal may be — though, like you, they take the 
Bible in their hands, and endeavour to find in it 
directions for all their conduct — may not be, shall I say 
acceptable to God, or rather shall I say, likely, accord- 
ing to human reason and the workings of nature, to 
accomplish their object ? Piety, indeed, and self- 
devotion, and labourings for the glory of Christ's 
name, and for the salvation of his creatures, cannot 
be unacceptable to Him who knows the secrets of 
the heart, and will judge us, not by what we have 
not, but by what we have. And if we speak with 
sorrow, and even seem to censure the labours of those 
good men who have gone out from our country singly 
and separately, to cany the Gospel to the heathen, it 
must be that we bear in mind also that they were 
left without the proper machinery for effecting and 
giving permanence to their undertaking. Yet let us 
pray that better things be in store for us — that the 
Church herself may propagate herself throughout all 
lands, and so we build upon a rock. 

Yes, said the Missionary, we will all pray together 
with one heart, that whatever be the mode appointed 
by Almighty God, and most likely to promote his 
glory, may be adopted by us all. 

And of this mode, I said, we shall find many indi- 
cations, and more than indications, in the Acts of the 
Apostles ; but I only wish to point out such as seem 
to imply and confirm the divine commission of the 
Church. For this, remember, is the great foundation 

2 b 2 



280 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. XI. 



which I wish to lay. Once establish the authority of 
the messenger from God, and the nature of the mes- 
sage can be little open to cavil. 

In the first place, then, I think, you will observe 
that whenever the Apostles went out to preach the 
Gospel and found a Church, they did not go singly. 
They seem studiously to have gone out in bodies as our 
Lord sent out his disciples at first, two and two. When 
they passed from one city to another they took with 
them companions from each, who formed a little com- 
pany, and served to introduce, as it were, and recom- 
mend their mission by a sort of personal attestation to 
their character. Now, I think, this is a remarkable 
fact: for if the faith and system which they were en- 
deavouring to propagate had originated with man, it 
must have originated and been shaped by some one 
mind ; and that mind being ambitious and zealous in 
support of its own doctrines, would have reserved to 
itself the command of the whole plan. It would not 
create checks and embarrassments to its own move- 
ments by co-ordinate authorities, or by surrounding 
itself with numerous and various independent wit- 
nesses ; and yet such was evidently the practice of the 
Apostles, as you see in the Epistles. And if the system 
w r as founded on the teaching of any one human being-, 
there would be nothing to prevent this principle of in- 
dividualism, if I may so speak, from spreading through- 
out its members ; and every one who possessed more 
talent or more zeal than another would be equally at 
liberty with the first founder to set up a new system 
of his own, and to make himself the head, round which 
to gather a body of personal adherents. And this has 
been the usual course of such systems; they have 
broken up, step after step, into schisms and dissensions. 
But on the supposition that the Apostles, and the 
ministers of the Church generally, were intrusted with 
the charge of a message 3 and act, not as supporters of 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



281 



a theory or project, but as witnesses to facts, this is 
just the conduct and plan which would most effectually 
secure this object, while it as effectually prevented 
them from accomplishing the other. Observe how 
St. Paul himself declares this principle. He is writing 
to one of the churches where this principle of indivi- 
dualism had crept in. "And I, brethren, could nor 
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, 
even as unto babes in Christ .... For ye are yet 
carnal : for whereas there is among you envying, and 
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as 
men ? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, 
I am of Apollos ; are ye not carnal? "Who, then, is 
Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye 
believed ; even as the Lord gave to every man ? I 
have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the 
increase." 1 I do not quote to you the whole passage, 
for you ought to read it yourself, and not to gather 
your knowledge of the Scriptures from scattered frag- 
ments taken out of their place. 

And the Missionary could show you many other 
passages, as in the beginning of the Epistles, where, 
as if to avoid purposely this appearance of individual 
teaching, other names are associated with the writer 
in sending them. 

The Missionary professed his readiness to do so. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, you do not retain this 
practice at the present day ; and surely it would be 
more necessary for you than for the Apostles, who, as 
you state, could work miracles, to offer your message 
to us by a body of men, checking, supporting, and en- 
couraging each other, rather than through separate 
individuals, whose characters are unattested, and their 
efforts desultory, and who, as individuals, must be 
open to suspicion, as they are liable to error. 



1 1 Corinth iii. 1. 



2 b 3 



282 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. XI. 



It is true, I said ; of late years our Church has 

neglected this apostolical practice. But by the bless- 
ing of God our eyes are opening to the necessity of 
returning to it ; and we have begun, as you see, the 
good work by sending out bishops, who have the 
power of creating and forming such bodies as will ex- 
hibit to you more clearly the real life, and principles, 
and order of a Christian Church. But, I said, we 
must not be led away from our present purpose. 
Will you, in looking to the Acts of the Apostles, 
observe another remarkable feature in their conduct ? 
By whom, I asked the Missionary, were the Apostles 
most cruelly and uniformly persecuted ? 
By the Jews, he replied. 

And yet, I continued, to whom did they uniformly 
address the first message of the Gospel ? When they 
came, for instance, into a new place, to whom did they 
make a point of applying first? 

To the Jews, he said. 

And do you observe, I asked, any regular order in 
which other persons were admitted to the privilege of 
hearing the Gospel ? 

Certainly, he said ; the Samaritans next to the Jews, 
and then the proselytes and Gentiles. 

And this, I continued, notwithstanding that in every 
place the Jews raised tumults against them, caused 
them to be stoned, and cast out of cities, and dragged 
before magistrates, and put to death. 

It is so, he said. 

Do you think, I continued, addressing the Brahmin, 
that men busied in propagating a doctrine of their 
own, having an interest of their own, would thus per- 
severingly address themselves to the parties, whom it 
was evidently hopeless to persuade, and whose conduct 
was full of exasperation and cruelty, and from whom 
they had nothing to gain ? Is it the conduct, again, 
of enthusiasts engaged in the prosecution of a vast 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



283 



plan, at all risks and sacrifices to adhere thus steadily 
and rigidly to a fixed rule, which seemed really to dis- 
appoint their object — showing no resentment, and 
indulging in no caprice ? Or can we account for it 
only by supposing that they were charged to adhere 
to this order by the Being from whom they received 
their commission, and in whose name they were 
acting ? 

Certainly the latter is more probable, said the 
Brahmin. 

Then, I said, observe the nature of their preaching. 
In the Acts you will find a number of short addresses, 
or sermons, directed to different classes of persons, 
some Jews, some Gentiles ; some to the educated, 
others to the uneducated ; some to priests, others to 
governors and princes ; and in all you will find one 
simple declaration, or witness to certain facts. They 
put forward no doctrines or systems of reasoning like 
human philosophers, but merely declare what they 
had seen and heard ; and the chief fact, in which 
they ail agree, is that they had seen and heard, 
and communed after death with the same Jesus Christ, 
whom the Jews had put to death upon the cross ; and 
on this follows the demand that He should be received 
as their Lord. 

Yes, said the Missionary, this was the priuciple 
which St. Paul has explicitly stated, " And I, brethren, 
when I came to you, came not with excellency of 
speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony 
of God. For I determined not to know anything 
among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after 
wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the 
J ews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolish- 
ness." 2 

And I know few things, I continued, so remarkable 
1 1 Corinth, ii. 1. 2 1 Corinth, i. 22. 



284 



TH2 ACTS 



[chap. XI. 



as this. For we shall find numberless cases, where 
large bodies of men will come forward to attest, even 
under fearful sufferings, their own belief in facts, and 
their attachment to particular doctrines or leaders. 
This is not uncommon ; and men in this case are often 
confounded with the Apostles and early Christians in 
their sufferings. But there is one great difference. 

What is that ? said the Brahmin. 

These enthusiasts, I said, if asked what they would 
declare and attest, will be found to certify only their 
own belief, or their own attachment. Thus I can 
easily understand that a Mahometan would die in 
defence of his religion, and a Hindoo in defence of 
his, and a Christian, even uninstructed, in defence of 
his. And if they were asked the grounds of their 
belief, they would be found to be opinions or feelings 
of their own. But the witness of the Apostles was to 
external facts, in which their own reasoning or incli- 
nations had little or rather no part. Will you remem- 
ber this distinction ? 

I will, said the Brahmin. You have alluded to it 
before. 

Another thing, I continued, you may observe in 
these addresses in the Acts to different parties, that 
although they all bear the same character of simple 
attestations to facts, they are all slightly varied, and 
with great knowledge of human nature, to meet the 
different circumstances of the hearers. The good 
heathens are addressed with mildness, the bad with 
sternness ; the Jews with references to their own his- 
tory ; the Athenians with allusions to their poets and 
philosophers ; rulers with deference ; the lower classes 
with authority ; the lovers of rhetoric in a more orna- 
mental style. In every part there are proofs of calm, 
thoughtful, discriminating habits of mind, which bear 
no resemblance to enthusiasm ; which are the very 
opposite of enthusiasm, which is a violent emotion, 



CHAP. XI. j 



THE ACTS. 



285 



carrying men in one direction to the exclusion of 
all others, and to the prevention of all deliberation and 
distinction. 

The Missionary here pointed out to the Brahmin 
some instances of this. 

Another feature in enthusiasm, I said, is the love 
of novelty. Earnest and fervent minds are seized by 
some new idea, and carried away with it. Everything 
that is old or prior to it is neglected, and seems 
poor and sordid. Teacher is supplanted by teacher, 
theory by theory, reality by hope, the past by the 
future. Of this you will find no traces in the Apostles. 
Observe how they cling to the institutions and even pre- 
judices of the Jews, and that, too, at the very time when 
they are attacked by every provocation to desert them, 
and are preaching a system which is virtually to 
supersede them ; how anxious they are to show that 
Christianity is not a novelty, but only the fulfilment 
of prophecy, and the completion of a long- existing 
system ; how they build upon the old foundation, and 
endeavour, at sacrifices, and with patience and diffi- 
culty, to conform themselves to it rather than hazard a 
new establishment of their own. This, I think, is not . 
easily to be accounted for, without supposing that they 
acted under restraint from without, as messengers 
from God, and not as inventors of a theory by human 
reason. And we may repeat here, I continued, the re- 
mark before made, respecting the accidental but pro- 
vidential application of the Scriptures to our wants as 
a Church. 

Do you mean, said the Missionary, one with which 
I was struck, that the Epistles, though written, seem- 
ingly, unconnectedly, and without reference to any 
general design, yet do form a complete body of teach- 
ing, showing us how to deal with all varieties of 
Christians ? 

Yes, I said; and so the Acts seem to offer us, under 



286 



THE ACTS. 



[chap. XI. 



the form of short unconnected addresses, on inci- 
dental occasions, a summary of rules and models, on 
which to shape all our applications to unconverted 
heathens. This seems to be one of its most important 
uses. From the Athenian philosophers to the barba- 
rians in the island of Malta, instances are given of the 
mode in which the Gospel should be preached to every 
class of heathen mind ; and which modes we should 
imitate now. 

But there is a great difference, said the Missionary, 
between the case of the Apostles and our own, for they 
had miracles, and we have not. 

Far be it from us, I replied, to say that the age of 
miracles has gone by, or that the Church may not still 
be endued with the power of working them f^r the 
spread of God's glory as her faith grows warmer. But 
I think, if you look to the mode in which miracles were 
wrought by the Apostles, here again you will find not 
only that there is not so great a distinction between 
our position and theirs, but also several marks that 
they felt themselves acting under a commission from 
the Most High. In the first place, have you ever re- 
marked the place which these miracles seem to occupy 
in the preaching of the Gospel ? 

I do not understand you, said the Missionary. 

I mean, I said, that they seem to be exhibited not 
so much with a view to produce belief, as to rouse 
attention at the first to the commission of the preacher, 
and then to confirm that belief already supposed to 
exist. We know that miracles, however wonderful, 
failed in producing conviction in the minds of bar-' 
dened unbelievers. It was easy to attribute them at 
that time to the powers of darkness, or to deny them 
altogether, as it is easy now to assign them to some 
human, though superior knowledge, of the laws of 
nature. And the evidence of miracles is an intellectual 
argument ; and perhaps no one was ever yet brought 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE ACTS. 



287 



to a genuine childlike faith through his intellect. It is 
personal attachment to our teachers, personal faith, which 
really produces belief ; which enables us to receive all 
the declarations which are made to us, to practise obe- 
dience and cherish love, and which thus brings us into 
a Church, or society of men, not merely converts us to 
a code of opinions. And to be a Christian, remember, 
is to be a member of a certain society, not merely to 
profess certain doctrines. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. 

Will you follow me, I said, another step ? 

He assented. 

And this personal attachment, I proceeded, is made 
the cement of Christian fellowship. " As my Father 
hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye in 
my love." 1 " Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever 
I command you." 2 "These things I command you, 
that ye love one another." 3 ".If ye keep my com- 
mandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have 
kept my Father's commandment, and abide in his 
love." 4 Such is the language of the whole Christian 
dispensation. Christ bound to God, and the Church 
to Christ, and each individual Christian to the Church, 
in the same bonds of affection and love ; and but one 
and the same Divine Being, loved in all, and by all. 

It is so, said the Missionary. 

Now then, I continued, will you observe this remark- 
able fact ? When human beings, acting as human 
beings, have eithrr supposed themselves to be endowed 
with the gift of working miracles, or have false! v pre- 
tended to it, they have put it forward, may we not say 
universally, as a guarantee to their personal authority, 
which was to supersede the necessity of any other 
claim. They desired to stand before men as gods, 



1 John xv. 9. 2 John xv. 14. 3 Juhn xv. 17. 

* John xv. 10 



2SS 



THE ACTS . 



[chap. XI. 



armed with a divine power, and exercising it irrespon- 
sibly and arbitrarily. And such is the natural light 
in which supernatural powers are regarded by men. 
The possession of them compensates, in the eyes of 
common people — perhaps of all who really believe in 
their existence— for defects in moral qualities, for even 
unkindness, and conduct which would otherwise 
alienate the allegiance and affections of a subject 
Thus we account for the reverence paid to idols, for 
the superstitious veneration given in some systems of 
religion to notoriously profligate teachers, — for the 
blind and abject submission, with which, in the more 
uncivilized regions now lying under the yoke of 
Popery, the people bow down to the priests, even 
though they can neither love nor respect them as men. 
And of any such feeling among really Catholic Chris- 
tians, or of any such claim on the part of the Apostles, 
when they worked miracles, you will find no traces. 
In the first place, it is the belief of Christians, and the 
declaration of the teachers of Christianity, that mira- 
cles may be wrought not only by themselves, but bv 
the teachers of false and hostile religions. What God 
said to the Jews, he has said also to us: " If there 
arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, 
and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or 
the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, 
saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast 
not known, and let us serve them ; thou shalr not 
hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that 
dreamer of dreams : for the. Lord your God proveth 
you, to know whether ve love the Lord your God with 
all your heart, and with all your soul. Ye shall walk 
after the Lord your God, and fear him and keep his 
commandments, and ol^ey his voice ; and ye shall 
serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, 
or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; 
because he hath spoken to turn you away from the 



CHAP. XI.] MIRACLES AND PROPHECY. 



289 



Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of 
Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, 
to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God 
commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the 
evil away from the midst of thee." 1 So also our 
Lord prophesied, speaking of the latter days : "Then 
if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or 
there ; believe it not. For there shall arise false 
Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs 
and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possible, they 
shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you 
before." 2 And the same prophecy and declaration is 
repeated again and again by the Apostles. 

And what do you infer from this ? said the 
Brahmin. 

That miracles, I replied, by themselves are not con- 
sidered in the Gospel as adequate or infallible proofs 
of a commission from God — an allowance, I think, 
so unlike to the ordinary claims of those, who have 
assumed pretences to the power of working them, that 
in itself it deserves great attention. 

On what then, asked the Missionary*; would they 
rest their proofs ? 

On miracles, I said, attesting an old hereditarv 
religion, or system of true tradition. If men departed 
from the revelation once given by God, and established 
a new system, that novelty proved it to be their own, 
and no miracles w T ere to be admitted as authorizing it. 

And how then, he asked, was Christianity itself 
established ? 

Christianity, I said, was no novelty; it was only a 
development of a system already commenced, and 
announced in the Jewish dispensation. It was the 
realization of its types, a fulfilment of its prophecies, 
a completion of its beginnings, a shoot from its trunk. 
Bear this in mind, and remember that the God of 
1 Deut. xiii. 1. 2 Matthew xxir. 23. 

PART I. 2 C 



290 



MIRACLES AND PROPHECY. [CHAP. XI. 



Moses was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; 
and that the God of Abraham was the God of Noah, 
and that the God of Noah was the God of Adam ; and 
you will trace, without interruption, one stream of re- 
velation unbroken from the earliest time, to which 
all men were to adhere. 

But how then, continued the Missionary, shall we 
persuade the Brahmin to abandon the creed of his 
forefathers, and become a Christian ? 

By showing him, I said, that we possess, and not 
he, the old original revelation from Almighty God, 
and that his creed is a deflexion from it ; and that as 
such, it stands condemned by God ; and that no 
miracles, even if they exist, can sanction it. But this 
was not the object which I had in view, in suggesting 
this characteristic feature of Chiistianity. I wished 
rather to show that the negation of miracles, as valid 
evidence, except when they are coupled with this condi- 
tion of adherence to the one old revelation, precludes 
the possibility of Christianity being a novelty, or inven- 
tion of man ; such an invention as miracles by them- 
selves are usually introduced to support. And in this 
point of view the miracles of Christianity are closely 
connected with another important feature in it. 

What is that ? said the Brahmin. 

With prophecy, I replied. For, as if to bind 
together all the several developments of the one grand 
revelation of God toman, He has been pleased, previ- 
ous to each successive stage, to give warning of it 
through his prophets. Thus the Jewdsh dispensation, 
and the judgments inflicted on the Egyptians by 
Moses, which constituted his credentials authorizing 
him to become the founder, as it were, of a new 
dynasty, were foretold to Abraham. 1 And the coming 
of our Lord, with the wonders which he would work, 



1 Genes, xv. 14. 



CHAP. XI.] MIRACLES AND PROPHECY. 



291 



were foretold by Moses, and by a succession of other 
prophets. And the miracles of the Apostles, who 
were also employed to develop the doctrines and sys- 
tem communicated to them by Christ, were foretold 
by him ; and there the series was closed ; and we 
are warned that we are not to expect any other link in 
the chain — or to listen even to an angel from heaven, 1 
if he preached to us any other Gospel, not even if he 
preached it with the seeming confirmation of lying 
wonders. And thus you will find both our Lord and 
the Apostles constantly confirming their miracles by 
prophecy, still further to prove that they come from 
God, and are attempting no deviation or interruption 
to his one great system — that the doctrines which 
these miracles are wrought to support are not novel- 
ties, or inventions of man. 

Yes, said the Missionarv ; I have two remarkable 
instances here before me. And he showed the Brahmin 
the passage .in St. Luke, 2 where this argument is ex- 
pressly used by our Lord to the disciples of John ; and 
also the passage in the Acts, 3 where it is applied by 
St. Peter on occasion of the miraculous effusion of the 
gift of tongues : " But this is that which was spoken 
by the prophet Joel : And it shall come to pass in the 
last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon 
all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall pro- 
phesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your 
old men shall dream dreams : And on my servants and 
on my handmaidens 1 will pour out in those days of 
my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy : And I will show 
wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth 
beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke : The 
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord 



1 Galat. i. 8. 2 Chap. vii. 19. 3 Chap. ii. 17. 

2 c 2 



292 



MIRACLES AND PROPHECY. [CHAP. XI. 



come : And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall 
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." 

And I think, I said, that this close connexion 
between miracles and prophecy is peculiar to the 
Gospel. Many other religious systems abound in ac- 
counts of miracles ; some of them hard to be ex- 
plained away, and which therefore may seem to have 
originated in superhuman power. But the Christian 
believes in the existence of other superhuman power 
besides that of Almighty God. He believes and feels 
within himself that Almighty God has been pleased, 
for some wise and good purpose, to permit his crea- 
tures to exercise powers derived from himself in oppo- 
sition to his will and command. Every sinful act of 
man is a proof of this ; and we know, that not till the 
end of things will this strange, mysterious permission 
be revoked, and God "will take unto himself his 
great power," and " put all enemies under his feet." 
But knowing this, the Christian is not satisfied that a 
miraculous power is a proof of a divine mission. He 
knows that the devils have power beyond his own ; 
and although he may think that there is another con- 
firmation of miracles to be found in the nature of the 
doctrines which they support, that is, in their wisdom, 
goodness, and holiness, yet if he suffers his own sinful 
and ignorant heart to pronounce on these without some 
other guide, he may perchance, or rather will cer- 
tainly, fall into error. He therefore thankfully accepts 
another attestation to their divine origin, in their con- 
nexion with a revelation which he knows already to be 
divine, and in the confirmation of this connexion by 
prophecy. 

You speak then, said the Brahmin, of the whole of 
God's revelation to man from the beginning of the 
world, as one and continuous, only successively 
developed ; and of miracles and prophecy together as 
the two bands which preserve their unity. 



CHAP. XI.] MIRACLES AND PROPHECY. 



293 



Yes, I said; if I may use a familiar illustration, 
this revelation is like a telescope composed of many 
tubes, all shutting into one, and drawn out one after 
the other. And, as you describe it, prophecy and 
miracles are the rivets and fastenings, which prevent 
any one tube from becoming detached from the rest. 

I understand you, said the Brahmin. 

And there are, I continued, some other circumstances 
in the Christian miracles, which still further attest the 
divine mission, not only of the Apostles and their fol- 
lowers who wrought them, but of the Church of the pre- 
sent day, which I fear it must be thought, from luke- 
warmness of faith, no longer seems to possess that power. 

What are these ? asked the Brahmin. 

It is hard, I said, (is it not ?) for ignorant men to 
discern what really is miraculous. Everything is 
miraculous or wonderful to each of us, which surpasses 
our own power and comprehension ; and therefore the 
more we are sensible of our own deficiency of know- 
ledge, and of the vast extent of the laws of nature, 
and of the power which may be possessed by others 
beyond ourselves, and of the innumerable coincidences 
and combinations which may lurk as yet unobserved 
in the operations of natural causes, the mure we are 
disposed to hesitate before we assign any fact, however 
wonderful, to a cause which is supernatural. 

It is so, said the Brahmin. 

And for this reason I think that, in the present day, 
miracles are not that kind of attestation to the truth of 
the mission of the Church, which would tell most upon 
the mind of this generation. For instance, an unbeliever 
might carry you to England, and show to you there, as 
I have before suggested, arts, lull as extraordinary, and 
as far beyond your power of explanation, as the curing 
of diseases by a t^uch. If I told you that in England I 
c»Jiild communicate in a few minutes with a person 
many hundred miles distance ; that I could set fire to 

• 2c3 



294 



MIRACLES. * [CHAP. XT. 



a piece of metal by pouring cold water on it ; that I 
could pass from England to India across the sea against 
the wind and tide, by the help of a little fire ; that I 
could discern the shape of countries in the moon ; that 
I could count the beatings of the pulse of this little 
insect which is now creeping on my hand, and which 
you can scarcely see; that I could raise myself up 
into the air, and traverse the sky, as in a boat; that I 
could cure diseases of which in this country you know 
no remedy ; that I could spread in a few hours over 
the whole kingdom the knowledge of words which you 
had uttered now, and place them at once under the 
eyes of millions of human beings — all these things 
would be to you as miracles ; and if not yourself, at 
least those who know nothing of the arts and means 
by which such ends are accomplished, might hesitate 
for some time before you could believe that these were 
purely human operations; and when you had dis- 
covered that they were such, you would suspect 
naturally that all other wonderful things might be 
accounted for in the same manner. 

Probably it would be so, said the Brahmin. 

And if I made use of these extraordinary powers 
to impose on you, I ' continued, and endeavoured to 
persuade you that they were superhuman, in order 
to gain credit with you for some object of my own, 
when you had discovered this cheat and imposture, 
your suspicions of others would be still more roused. 

Certainly, he said. 

And yet, remember, I said, I do wish to make use 
of them for one purpose. I do wish to bring them 
forward in attestation of the mission of the Church, 
though I tell you at the same time that they are but 
human ; and I did this, if you recollect, when I sug- 
gested to you how easily Christianity might be refuted, 
if false, in an age so full of human knowledge ; and 
that it had not been refuted, but had rather become 



CHA.P. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



295 



more deeply rooted in the affections and convictions 
of the wisest and best of men. 
You did this, he said. 

But I did not say that they were superhuman ; 
and the question which you may now ask is this: — 
How we are to distinguish a human from a super- 
human power in wonderful phenomena of this kind? 

One means, he said, would of course be the 
absence of all machinery. • 

Yes, I said. Human beings are allowed by God's 
goodness to acquire a wonderful power over his works, 
and over the laws which rule them ; but it is by putting 
together a number of means, and constructing them 
together, so that what cannot be effected by one may 
be reached through many, just as the length of a lever 
enables us with more ease to move a weight ; and as a 
combination of materials, each incapable of explosion, 
will produce gunpowder ; and thus, wherever there 
is room for the employment of machinery, and for 
this combination of means, we may doubt if the result 
be, properly speaking, miraculous. For instance, 
you possess in this country a wonderful art, wholly 
inexplicable even to scientific men, of jugglery. We 
call it jugglery, and believe it to be human, though 
we are wholly unable to trace its operation : but the 
men who practise it do not presume to attempt it with- 
out some preparation ; and thus we believe that it is the 
result of a combination of means unknown to us. 

The Missionary seemed pained at the illustration, 
as if it were irreverent. 

I use the illustration, I continued, with such pain, 
as I am sure all Christians who love and honour 
their crucified Lord and Master, and believe in the 
workings of his Holy Spirit, must feel at any word, 
as connects together his glorious name and the 
delusions of man. But we must speak to unbelievers 
as they speak themselves, if their ignorance is to be 



296 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



exposed. I would wish, therefore, that the Brahmin, 
when he examines the narratives of the miracles 
contained in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the 
other books of the Bible, would observe if they are con- 
nected with any circumstance which implies a con- 
struction of machinery to accomplish them. 

How shall I observe this? said the Brahmin. 

Examine, I said, if they be confined to particular 
individuals, or are shared by a great number, as in 
the miraculous gift of tongues ; or whether they are 
wrought only at certain places, or everywhere — at 
stated hours, or just as the occasion presented itself — 
in the midst only of friends, and of persons who were 
unable to inquire and scrutinize — or in the midst 
of deadly enemies, bent on the destruction of those 
who wrought them. Again, are they limited to the 
exercise of some one power, which might have been 
attained by some secret science, or do they extend over 
the whole range of nature ; healing the sick, opening 
the eyes of the blind, making the deaf to hear, feeding 
thousands without food, commanding the winds and 
the waves, foretelling events, seeing the thoughts, 
giving life and death, each by a word? I do not point 
out all these details myself; for this ought to be done 
by your own observation, otherwise it will do you 
little good. 

The Brahmin promised that he would study the 
Scripture account himself. 

And then, I said, you might observe with what 
temper of mind they are wrought. Is there any 
parade, any wish to excite observation, anything 
capricious or irregular in the employment of them ? 
Do certain conditions always seem annexed to their 
success? Are they accompanied with prayer and 
fasting, and invocations of one Holy Name, and other 
acts which imply seriousness, devotion, discretion, 
self-forgetfumess, and holiness ? And this last is indeed 
of great weight. 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



297 



In what way? said the Brahmin — for impostors 
who pretend to work miracles, use names, and invoca- 
tions, and rites, which seem religious. 

What, I said, is the practice of men, when they 
are unable to ascertain the sincerity and truth of 
other men by common observation ? 

They make them, said the Brahmin, take an oath. 

And what is an oath ? I said. 

It is a declaration that they are speaking the truth, 
as in the presence of God. 

And this, I said, is the strongest confirmation of 
human words which we can employ. 

It is so, he replied. 

And why is it so ? I asked. 

Evidently, he said, because we cannot conceive 
that men w ould dare to tell a lie in the presence of 
God, and because He would avenge such an insult 
to his name, either in this world or the next. 

And therefore, I continued, if a man professes to 
work miracles in the name of God, and accompanies 
them by solemn repeated attestations of his name, we 
might suppose not only that he really believed what 
he uttered, but also that God, sooner or later, would 
punish him for the blasphemy, if he told a falsehood. 

Certainly, he said. 

Now then, I said, consider that for eighteen hundred 
years Christianity has prevailed upon the earth ; and 
in proportion to the zeal and sincerity with which it 
has been followed, have been the goodness and happi- 
ness, internal, if not external, of those who embraced it. 
And Christianity w r as founded on the declarations and 
miracles of men who worshipped their Lord and 
Master, not merely as a prophet sent from God, but 
as God himself — who at the same time declared that 
this God was one, and that he was jealous of his glory, 
and would not allow his honour to be given to another ; 
and in the name of this great Being they worked their 



298 



M I R. A CLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



miracles, appealing to them uniformly as a proof that 
they were sanctioned by God himself. Does this look 
probable, if no such sanction were given ? 

And yet, said the Brahmin, bad men are allowed 
to pass unpunished in this world. 

For a time, I said, they are ; and God seems to 
close his eyes, as it were, upon our transgressions, 
whether until the measure of our iniquities be filled 
up, or to give us time for repentance, or to try us 
more completely, or to place men under circum- 
stances of necessary temptation, or to reserve his 
judgment for some more fitting time. But this space 
of his long- suffering is not unlimited. There are ex- 
pressions and facts in our sacred books, and facts also 
may be traced in our ow r n experience, which seem to 
imply thai God thus deals with several generations — ■ 
three or four — that he considers them as bound toge- 
ther by blood into one common body, and that the 
punishment may fall on the child as well as on the 
parent for the sins of that parent ; and we can see 
many reasons why such a proceeding may be good 
and wise. But eighteen hundred years is a period 
too long to suppose that during all this time Almighty 
God should have permitted his thunders to sleep, and 
not have executed vengeance upon men, who, if their 
tale were false, and their miracles impositions, were 
deceiving the poor and ignorant, and overturning 
the worship of whole nations under public demon- 
strations of blasphemy and idolatry. 

And yet, said the Missionary, how would you 
reconcile this with the fact that so many false reli- 
gions have been allowed by Providence to be set on 
foot and to flourish for ages, such as Mahometanism, 
and others, which, more than Mahometanism, are 
founded on a profession of a divine mission, and of 
miracles ? 

I think, I said, there are some remarkable dif- 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



299 



ferences between such systems and Christianity. 
Many such systems profess to be accompanied with 
miracles — that is, the followers of their founders have 
at later periods attributed extraordinary powers to 
their founders, as is the case in numerous Romish 
saints; or the founders themselves have taken ad- 
vantage of casual circumstances to encourage a belief 
that they possessed these powers. But this is not the 
same as to make a solemn declaration of, and claim to, 
divine authority — authority, remember, not human, not 
merely that of a teacher or prophet to be followed, but 
of God to be adored — and then to confirm this claim 
by miracles. And although there may be false reli- 
gious systems which have endured even longer than 
Christianity, there are no such marks upon them of 
Divine favour as there are upon Christianity. 

What marks would you allude to ( said the Brahmin. 

You should know them, I said ; for many of them will 
occur to you in reading the Scriptures, and the history 
of the Acts of the Apostles. I should name first the 
goodness and holiness of sincere and real Christians, 
which must be the gift of God ; secondly, their patience 
and composure under the greatest sufferings and trials, 
under which mere human nature would soon sink; 
thirdly, the fact that these sufferings have been endur- 
ed, not from enthusiasm, not under the support of 
momentary excitement, or popular applame, or sullen 
obstinacy — for little of these can be traced in the con- 
duct of the Christian martyrs. They have died in the 
midst of public scorn and detestation. The sufferings 
which they bore of old must have been long, wearing, 
and tiying, far more than the bodily pain of death — 
for in renouncing their fathers' creed and worship, 
they renounced the ties of blood, and the sweet- 
nesses of friendship and society : from which trial at 
the same time they were commanded not to flee, but 
to submit to it with patience, and to obey all men with- 



300 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



out a struggle in all things lawful. And I add to these 
marks of Divine favour the influence which Chris- 
tianity has exercised upon the good and great of the 
world — its influence in comforting the poor, in forming 
laws, in governing states, in securing peace and 
order wherever it has been obeyed from the heart, 
in spreading knowledge, in rousing and directing 
sound thought, in mitigating wars, in diminishing the 
horrors of slavery, in improving the condition of 
women, and thus sweetening and purifying domestic 
life ; in binding together distant nations by one 
common tie of amity, in checking tyranny, in diffusing 
many and many a consolation for the various ills of 
life, partly in institutions of charity, partly in lessons 
of goodness and consolations of hope. And though, as 
in all other blessings given by God to man, so, in this, 
man has been permitted to neglect, to pervert, almost 
to destroy Christianity, by the corruptions which our 
own self-will and self-conceit has introduced into it, as 
is the case in Popery ; still it seems to be another 
wonderful proof that the hand of God is with us, that, 
under so many discouragements, and after such in- 
veterate corruptions, one country at least has been 
enabled to shake off these falsities and perversions, and 
to place the Gospel and the Church once more 
before the world in its truth and purity ; and to do 
this, not by setting up a new system of its own creation, 
but by returning to the old ways and the old paths, 
as was done at our blessed Reformation in the English 
Church. And even in our own days, after long times 
of coldness and neglect, once more a higher and better 
spirit seems to have been infused into that Church ; 
and though beaten down and oppressed, and sinning, 
it seems likely to arise again, and to spread the Gospel 
through the earth as a faithful minister of the Most 
High, blessed with His blessing, as He himself pro- 
nounced, " even unto the end of the world." Can, I 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



301 



continued, any other system of religion produce such 
marks as these of the Divine favour and approbation ? 
I speak not of pomp or wealth, for these may be not 
goods, but evils ; but of blessings which reach the soul. 
Or, not to go so far, can we believe that Almighty 
God would have permitted, or that nature itself would 
cause, such good results to follow from a beginning 
made in blasphemy and fraud ? 

The Brahmin was silent. And yet, he said, after a 
pause, our religion also is of vast antiquity and extent, 
and how little have you been able to shake it ! 

It is, I said, of great antiquity, and is spread over 
immense regions ; but it is not, in those regions, what 
Christianity has been wherever it has been heartily 
embraced — it has not passed through such trials — it 
is not the life, and strength, and purity of your 
people — it has not retained in reformation the one 
foundation on which it was first built — it has not 
extended to other countries than your own, and those 
more civilized and more learned — it has not been 
embraced by nations differing in tongues, and manners, 
and government, and feelings, as Christian nations 
have differed from each' other. If you reverted now, 
as we are reverting in England, to the primitive and 
original principles of your Church, and reformed your 
religious worship after the model of the Vedas, cutting 
off all the idolatrous and criminal rites which have 
crept into it in the same manner and by the same 
means with which idolatry and vice crept into the 
Romish form of Christianity, would you be followed 
by the people at large ? Do you think your religion 
would be more firm and more durable, as we hope, 
and have reason to believe, that ours will be — or would 
it fall at once into ruin ? This is indeed but a 
question of conjecture, and not of fact, on which 
neither I nor yourself may be competent to speak 

PA.RT I. 2D 



302 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



with boldness. But I would ask you to consider it 
honestly. 

I will, replied the Brahmin. 

And now, I proceeded, I would mention one or 
two more facts, which may strike you in reading the 
miracles wrought by our Lord and his Apostles, and 
which seem to imply and confirm the declaration that 
they have come to us, bearing a message from God. 
First, it is a singular thing that a Founder of a religion 
should profess to be able, not only to work miracles hi ni- 
self, but to impart the same power to his followers — and 
that not to one or two, but to large bodies. This I have 
mentioned already. For one of the chief miracles with 
which the preaching of the Gospel was accompanied, 
was the power of speaking languages which had not 
been learned before ; and this power with other 
supernatural gifts, as you will find in St Paul's 
Letters to the Corinthian Church, was shared by 
great numbers. You cannot produce any fact of 
this kind from the records of any other religion. And 
observe, there was no limitation to the exercise of 
this power. The Bible does not say that it was 
given to this or that individual, or that it was to last 
for this or that age; the Bible rather encourages the 
hope and belief that so long as the followers of Christ 
continued in unity, concord, and holiness, they might 
hope for the same supernatural signs of God's blessing. 
And, therefore, good and pious Christians are not 
surprised, even now, if miracles seem sometimes to be 
wrought ; only they will not accept them as credentials 
to the founder of any new system of doctrine or dis- 
cipline, because Christ has already told us that we 
are bound to adhere to the one which we have already 
received, and may not listen to new teachers, calling 
themselves Christs, even though they work wonders 
before us. Now I think such an assumption as a 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



303 



power to confer on others the ability to work miracles 
is very remarkable. And remember this was done at a 
time when the Christians were to be spread over the 
whole earth : M Go ye therefore and teach all nations," 
said our Lord, u baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 1 And 
we know that they did thus go into all nations ; we 
know it from documents and records, not only of their 
own, but uf their enemies ; and we can no more doubt 
it than any other simple fact of history. Now wherever 
they carried the Scriptures, there the unbelieving 
nation might naturally demand that miracles should 
be wrought to confirm the mission ; for the power of 
working miracles had been given to them expressly 
by their Master and Lord. He said unto them, 
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned. And these signs shall follow them that 
believe : In my name shall they cast out devils ; they 
shall ^peak with new tongues ; they shall take up 
serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall 
not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and 
they shall recover." And then the narrative proceeds, 
" So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he 
was received up into heaven, and sat on the right 
hand of God. And they went forth, and preached 
everywhere, the Lord working with them, and con- 
firming the word with signs following." 2 Now con- 
sider, to have made such a statement in the book 
which was allowed to be the great law of Christianity, 
and which was carried and made public wherever 
Christianity was carried, was to expose the Church 
to immediate and open refutation, unless the facts 
were true, and unless the first teachers could exhibit 
the signs attached to their mission by their own Lord. 
1 Matthew xxviii. 19. 2 Mark xvi. 15. 

2 D 2 



304 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



And I then, said the Brahmin, will demand of you 
now, that you give to me the same signs, and work a 
miracle before me. 

It is natural and reasonable, I answered, that you 
should make this demand ; and, perhaps, if the 
Church were now all that it ought to be, it would 
please Almighty God to work miracles by her hand 
now, as in the days of her youth ; but this mighty 
gift, it would seem, was coupled with certain conditions. 
In the first place it was not exerted except on be- 
lieving minds ; this you will see by the whole tenor 
of the Gospel. Our Blessed Lord worked daily 
miracles before the eyes of the Jews ; but when they 
came to him demanding a sign, he refused to give it. 
Neither He nor his Apostles wrought wonders to 
satisfy a faithless mind, or to overpower belief, or to 
swell the number of their followers. If, therefore, 
you ask a Christian minister to work a miracle, and 
ask it in a doubting, scoffing, or curious temper, he 
could not grant it. Think if this condition itself is 
not remarkable. Does it not show that the Gospel 
is not a system contrived for the subjugation of men, 
or the gratification of ambition ? Does it not prove 
that miracles were not regarded as the primary cause 
of belief? Otherwise they would be employed to pro- 
duce it. And if belief was not caused by miracles, 
could it have been caused by personal character and 
attachment to the persons of the Christian ministers, 
as individuals ; when this was again and again re- 
pudiated as contrary to the whole spirit of the Gospel, 
which bade man think not of man, but only of 
Christ? And if they were sent out to preach the 
Gospel, and to bring all men to the knowledge of 
God, and yet refused, or were prohibited, to make use 
of the very means which seemed most likely to pro- 
duce belief, must it not have been that they attributed 
the creation of belief to some other cause, and that 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



305 



cause in the hands of the same great Being by whom 
they were sent? We know, and I have told you 
before, that no man can come to Christ unless God 
draw him ; that no argument or conduct of men, no, 
not miracles which raised the dead before your e} es, 
would give you faith in Christ, unless God were 
pleased before to shed forth his grace upon your 
heart. If this grace be given, (and it will be given 
in answer to prayer, and the very prayer itself will 
be a sign that it is not withheld,) then you may come 
and demand miracles from the Church, of which you 
will then be made a child, and she will know how 
to satisfy your longing. Her very promise is to work 
within you a miracle. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, it would seem that 
miracles were wrought among unbelievers, and pro- 
duced this effect, that many of them believed. Where 
are such signs among us ? 

There are signs enough, I answered, even now, even 
before your eyes, to answer all the ends for which 
such miracles were wrought among unbelievers. One 
end was to fix their attention, and to make them 
examine the credentials with which the ministers of 
Christ came before them. And at this moment I 
myself (or rather the hand of Providence, which directs 
the movements even of the meanest of his creatures) is 
bringing me before you, and rousing your attention, 
that with a humble and a docile heart you may enter on 
the same inquiry ; and whether this effect be caused 
by some strange and supernatural appearance, or by 
the natural action of events, it matters nothing. And 
another object (if so we may dare to speak) or miracles 
addressed to unbelievers was (as I have said before) 
to convict them of sin if they continued in unbelief. 
And if you (may God in his mercy forbid it!) reject 
the offer which is now made to you, and harden your 
heart, and close your ear, will your condemnation for 



306 



MTRACLES. 



[chap. XI. 



preferring falsehood to truth, and darkness to light, and 
for setting at nought the express commands of your 
Maker and your God, be less heavy or less just, 
because the warning was conveyed to you fully and 
repeatedly, and accompanied with reasonings and 
explanations, than if you had only been startled into 
momentary reflection by some passing wonder ? 

The Brahmin made no reply, but seemed lost in 
thought. And have you then, he said at last, no 
miracles in these days to prove your faith ? 

Yes, I replied, we have daily and hourly miracles 
for those who believe — who believe not in word only, 
but in heart and in practice — who obey as well as love ; 
and love in heart, as well as in lips. There is the peace 
of conscience, there is the purification of the soul, 
there is the mastery over passion, there is the conquest 
over self-will, there is patience under agony, there is 
comfort in the midst of bereavement, there is joy in 
tribulation, and triumph in death. And all these are 
miracles to him who knows the weakness and the frailty 
and the sinfulness of man ; and all these the Christian 
will witness not only in others, but in himself. Are they 
not greater miracles, better and happier far, than the 
cure of a bodily disease, or the sight even of a sign 
from heaven ? 

Yes, said the Brahmin ; but they cannot be known 
till after we have believed. 

They cannot, I said, it is true. And this for the 
reason I have given, that faith is the gift of God, the 
inspiration of his Holy Spirit, and not the working 
out of truth by the reason of man. 

But have you then no palpable and sensible miracles, 
he asked, to aid this working of the Spirit ? 

Yes, I replied; we have the Bible, and the history 
of the Church, and the very sight of the Church, how- 
ever rude and mean its form — all these (and I am now 
exhibiting them to you) are one vast miracle to a re- 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



307 



fleeting mind — to a mind which would least he affected 
by an outward wonder of the senses. All that I have 
told you is full of wonder, of something more than 
human. Tell me which you had rather — that we 
should deal with you as a man, or as a child — that we 
should address your senses by some outward wonder, 
or your reason in showing you the superhuman power 
by which Christianity and the Church have been framed 
and preserved, and spread abroad during 1800 years? 
Were you a child or a peasant, then indeed you might 
need some wonder speaking to your eye of sense ; but 
you are a man, and God is pleased to address his 
miracles now to your eye of understanding. 

And yet, said he, the poor and the uninstructed, 
they surely require miracles. Why are you left with- 
out them ? 

If you read the Bible attentively, I said, you will 
find that even the Apostles themselves were some- 
times left without them. St. Paul speaks of a dear 
friend whose illness he deplored, and for whose life he 
was anxious, 1 and whom we might suppose he would 
have cured immediately by his miraculous power. 
And so on many occasions where we might think that 
miracles would be exerted, God has allowed natural 
events to take their course. And before I apply this, 
let me remind you here also, that this is just what we 
should expect from men, who really were acting under 
a commission from the Most High, and were endowed 
with gifts and privileges not their own. Men who before 
this have pretended to miraculous power, or have 
forged accounts of it, have employed it chiefly for the 
purpose of supplying their own wants and necessities : 
they have thought more of this than of the good of 
others. But look to the miracles both of our Lord 
and his Apostles, and you will find them omitted 



1 Philippians ii. 27. 



308 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



chiefly when they themselves are in danger, unless in- 
deed in some rare cases, in which again for the warning 
or instruction of others they are rescued by a miracle. 
Oar Lord healed the wound of the person who came 
to seize him, while he submitted himself to be cruci- 
fied. And St. Peter restored to health the lame man 
in the temple, though he could not save himself from 
being imprisoned and scourged. And this seeming 
inconsistency is so great, that it struck even the most 
common observer. When our blessed Lord was 
hanging on the cross, this was the exclamation of the 
bystanders — " He saved others, himself he cannot 
save ; let Christ the King of Israel descend now from 
the cross, that we may see and believe." 2 Such things 
are inexplicable to man, and therefore man would never 
have invented them ; but they are like to the dealings 
of God — of that Divine Being especially, who, though 
Almighty, came into the w r orld for the very purpose of 
sacrificing himself for the good of his creatures. 

Alas ! said the Brahmin, how am I to understand 
such a mystery ? 

Remember, I said, I am not speaking now of this 
mystery : this point we may reach hereafter. Let us 
rather return to your question, why we are not now 
endowed with miracles as the first preachers of Chris- 
tianity were. It may be, I answer, that, at particular 
times in the history of his Church, God may be pleased 
to suspend them, as he suspended them at particular 
times in the lives of the Apostles. There may be evi- 
dence of another kind capable of being offered to the 
poor and uninstructed, and equally influential over be- 
lief ; or any such evidence may be superseded by the 
supernatural, but secret working of the Holy Spirit ; or 
He may will that, for some wise purpose, the Gospel in 
this age should be offered to the world with fewer out- 



1 Mark xv. 31. 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



309 



ward recommendations, whether to try our faith, or to 
exercise our knowledge, or it may be to expose and 
convict an age which boasts of its light, and yet is 
incapable of discerning the things that be of God. 
Or there may be another reason, perhaps the true one, 
that we have not performed the conditions to which 
such gifts have been attached ; we are not at unity 
with each other ; we have not fasted and prayed as 
we ought; we do not strive earnestly for the truth, 
like the saints of old ; we are faint and lukew r arm ; and 
the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit may be 
vouchsafed only to those who have advanced far in 
the paths of peace and love, and holiness and zeal. 

How then, said the Brahmin, if your Church is 
thus unfaithful to her trust, do you venture to come 
before us, and demand our recognition of your divine 
mission ? 

My friend, I said, do not say that our Church has 
been unfaithful. We her children and servants are 
so, but she warns, and teaches, and encourages us in 
all perfection. Our system is high and good, but w r e 
as individuals are weak and sinful ; and this is, and 
must be, a bar to your reception of the Gospel — a bar 
to be removed, we trust, more and more every day. 
And when the miracle of a pure and holy Church is 
before the eyes of men — when they see us giving up the 
world, renouncing the flesh, devoting ourselves wholly 
to our duty, and sacrificing ourselves wholly for their 
good — then they will want no others to convince them 
that God is indeed with us. 

But until that time comes, said the Brahmin 

Until that time comes, I replied, look on us as 
messengers who have been charged with a message, 
which they were bound to bring all together, confirm- 
ing it by their joint voices, and honouring it by the 
dignity of their appearance, and the sanctity of their 
manners : and who, instead of doing this, have fallen 



310 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



out by the way, and having quarrelled with ourselves 
have become a prey to thieves, and come before you 
stripped and mutilated of many noble powers, which, 
had we done our duty — done what our blessed Church 
in the name of God commands — we might still possess. 
Would our message be less true, or the duty of obey- 
ing it be altered, because such had been the conduct 
and the fate of the messenger ? 

No, said the Brahmin, but our disposition to believe 
it would be lessened. 

It might be so, I replied, but not perhaps justly. 
If we come to you sad and penitent, confessing that we 
have erred, humbling ourselves before the great King 
who sent us, and by disobeying whose commands we 
have fallen into this plight, perhaps you would have 
even more reason to acknowledge us as his servants : 
for in this there can be no selfishness ; and there is a 
double declaration of our sincere belief in the truth of 
his commission, not only in our still bearing it before 
us, to our own condemnation, but in our sorrow for 
having neglected it. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, to my surprise, miracles 
are difficult to believe; our nature revolts at them: 
they seem to overturn all the foundation of our know- 
ledge and reason, which is laid deep in the consis- 
tency and regularity of Nature ; and we feel a pre- 
judice against them, because the common people are 
so easily misled by pretences to them. 

What ? I said. If this be the case, it is a reason 
why w r e should not so earnestly demand them in this 
period of the Church. They may be, as I said before, 
unfit and inadequate means to convince of the truth 
minds philosophically and inquiringly disposed in this 
generation; and you surely are not one of those who 
regard miracles as themselves impossible ? 

No, he replied, smiling ; I was speaking as some of 
your own countrymen speak, and not of myself. For 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES. 



311 



we too boast of mir.acles far greater and more wonderful 
than any related in your books ; we are not so short- 
sighted as to suppose that we know the whole of 
God's dealings with man, and that nothing can take 
place beyond or unlike to what has passed under 
our own experience. We know that nearly all the 
events of life are to us inexplicable; we cannot 
assign the causes which bring about any single coinci- 
dence of events, even such as our meeting here this 
day ; and therefore to deny the possibility that events 
may take place from some other causes than those 
with which we are acquainted, is idle and presump- 
tuous. Our whole life is as full of miracles, as it is 
full of admiration and wonder. Admiration and won- 
der are the springs of all our inquiries, and the 
beginning of all knowledge; and they are roused only 
by sights which seem beyond our own intellect and 
power, and of which we can give no account ; and 
thus miracles are of daily occurrence in our ordinary 
life — miracles, that is, practically considered ; and 
therefore that similar strange events should be necessary 
in spiritual concerns cannot be improbable. I do not 
stumble at your miracles, but I think our own are 
greater. 

Yes, I said, they may be greater in some sense; 
they may appeal more to the imagination ; they may 
seem more gigantic, more like supernatural wonders ; 
but is there not here also a singular mark set upon the 
miracles of the Gospel ? They are shortly and simply 
stated as plain historical facts, with no expressions of 
surprises, nothing to excite the attention ; they stand in 
the book like any ordinary facts, and are related with a 
coolness and indifference which nothing can account 
for but the fact that they were familiar to the persons 
who narrate them. And compared with yours they 
have a system and an object ; they are employed upon 
consistent principles throughout. From the begin- 



312 



MIRACLES. 



[CHAP. XI. 



ning of the world all that we read of the miracles of 
God in the Bible is illustrative of the simple general 
axioms upon which the Church is founded — that no 
man can be saved without faith, that Christ is the 
author of our salvation, and that he came into the 
world to save sinners ; and that if we would please 
him, we must receive his commands and appointments 
through his ministers, and obey Him in the person of 
his one Holy Catholic Church. But when you look 
to the miracles of your own books, are they not wild, 
fanciful, and extravagant, without practical bearing, 
or religious doctrine contained in them — mere extra- 
vagances of fiction and poetry, which may stimulate 
the fancy, but bear on them little marks of truth and 
soberness ? They are not cases where an order of 
things like to the present is broken in a single link, 
but where the whole series of events is different from 
that which we experience. Your whole history is 
one miracle, and therefore not a miracle at all. 

The Brahmin said nothing at first. And yet, he 
replied at length, we believe in our miracles as firmly 
and as zealously as you believe in yours. 

Yes, I said ; but is a popular belief, not founded on 
observation or inquiry, which has not stood the test 
of learning and criticism, which merely repeats what 
has been uttered before, but can give no account of 
facts from its own experience — is this to be compared 
with the attestation given by the Church to the mira- 
cles of our Lord and his Apostles, and first disciples ? 
For that the narratives which give an account of them 
were written at the time they profess, we know from the 
testimony of the Church, which even in the earliest 
ages of the Gospel received these works as inspired ; 
and she received them, not upon her own conviction of 
their goodness and truth, though her own opinion she 
necessarily superadded by the very fact of receiving 
them, but upon tradition or historical testimony from 



CHAP. XI.] 



MIRACLES, 



313 



those who went before her. And what is still more 
remarkable, she received them as inspired on the 
faith of miracles at the very time when she was 
still capable of attesting, by her own personal expe- 
rience, the truth of the promise made by our Lord to 
his disciples generally ; for the miracles were not con- 
fined to the Apostles. There is historical evidence 
sufficient to prove that they were common for at least 
more than two centuries after their death. Appeals 
are made to them by defenders of Christianity, even 
in the midst of enemies, as to facts which could not 
be disputed ; and thus here again the witness of the 
Church to the miracles, as well as to the teaching of 
the Apostles, is founded on a matter of fact, cognizable 
by the senses : it is a witness to what she had seen 
and heard. 

And when then, said the Brahmin, did these mira- 
cles cease ? 

They died away, I replied, by degrees, gradually 
becoming mixed with fictions probably, and even impos- 
tures of bad or weak men ; and which nevertheless at- 
tested the fact that true miracles were common and ac- 
knowledged, otherwise the false could never have been 
received so easily, without doubt or scrutiny. And it 
would seem that they ceased in proportion as the 
Church acquired natural means of commanding the 
attention, and confirming the belief of mankind. 
When she became acknowledged by princes, and es- 
tablished in the public mind, and no longer was per- 
secuted or degraded in the eyes of men ; and when, 
besides the simple, unlettered persons who were 
purposely chosen by our Lord to be his first ministers, 
that their .preaching might stand not in the wisdom of 
man, but in the power of God, the wise and learned 
of the earth adopted her creed, and became her de- 
fenders : then God in his infinite wisdom seems to 

PART I. 2 E 

I 



314 



MIRACLES. 



[chap. XI. 



have left her more to her own resources. So the 
child is trained by the external aid of its parents, and 
provided with singular instincts, and guarded by a 
supernatural hand, so that its life is preserved to our 
view almost miraculously amidst dangers where adults 
in all probability would perish. So by degrees its 
strength is matured, and its reason enlightened, until 
it is allowed to walk alone ; but this process is 
slow and silent. The tree springs up from the 
seed, but who can watch each shoot it makes ? The 
light opens from dawn to noon-day, but who can 
mark each change ? The hours, the days, and years 
slide by, and the child passes into the man ; but no 
limit, visible to sight, fixes exactly and perfectly where 
infancy, and boyhood, and manhood, and old age, 
each of them begin and end. And the mind ripens 
and grows, either in good or evil, habits gradually fix- 
ing, and knowledge dawning, or ignorance and sin 
stealing on like the shadows of evening ; but no warn- 
ing voice tells us like the striking of a clock, that 
from one period of our probation, or one state of our 
being, we have passed into another. And so also in 
ail the dealings of Providence, his truth* is mixed with 
the errors and deceptions of men, as nutriment is 
mixed with matter. This truth is pure as the light ; but, 
when it passes into our dark atmosphere, it becomes 
coloured with our fancies, and broken by our stubborn- 
ness, and gives back images strange and distorted to 
our eyes, so that scarcely can we discern it as it is ; 
and yet we strive to walk by it, and walking by it 
humbly and cautiously, we save our lives. Even so 
of the miracles of the Gospel : forgeries, and impos- 
tures, and idle tales, and credulous fancies, are indee d 
mixed up with them in all but the records of the 
Bible. And yet there were realities among them ; and 
God has enabled us to ascertain the true miracles of 



CHAP. XT.] 



MIRACLES. 



315 



the Apostles, by preserving to us their own records ; 
and, through the testimony of the Church, to know 
that such generally were exhibited by their followers 
after them ; though we may not be able, as we do not 
want, to ascertain these more specifically, since on the 
Apostles only, and not on their followers, we build 
our doctrine and our faith in Christ. 

And with this let us close for the present, 



2 e 2 



316 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



CHAPTER XII. 

I found the Missionary the next morning engaged in 
pointing out to the Brahmin some remarkable passages 
in the Gospel, and endeavouring to interest him in 
the acts and sayings of our blessed Lord ; and to these 
he seemed desirous of drawing our conversation. 

You think, I said to him, that we are dwelling too 
long on the Acts of the Apostles, as on the history of 
human beings who were only ministers of our Lord, 
speaking with his voice and seeking his glory, and 
leading men up to him. Such indeed they were. And 
any thought or word which would make them as men 
the centre of our affections, or substitute them in the 
place of Christ, would be a fearful thing in Christians. 
And yet it maybe necessary to think much of them — 
much more than we have been accustomed to think in 
latter days. And such seems to have been the will and 
the command of Christ himself. Remember the words 
which I have repeated before this, and with which he 
sent out his Apostles. " Then said Jesus to them 
again, Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, 
even so send I you. And when he had said this, he 
breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are re- 
mitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they 
are retained." 1 And again : " He that receiveth you 
receiveth me, and he that receiveth me, receiveth him 
that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the 
name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward ; 
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of 



1 John xx. 21. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



317 



a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's re- 
ward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of 
these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name 
of a disciple, verily I say unto you, He shall in no 
wise lose his reward." I need not quote more ; 
hut surely such words as these ought to put us on our 
guard against making light of any of the ministers of 
Christ, as if by so" doing we were honouring Him. 

I would not make light of them, said the Mission- 
ary ; but is there not a disposition to allow the human 
ministers of God to come before, and eclipse, the great 
Being whom they serve ? And must we not dread this ? 

Surely, I said, we are bound most solemnly to 
guard against this. But he who would most reve- 
rence the Apostles, and tread most closely in their 
footsteps, and look on them most trustfully as the 
first depositaries of the Gospel, would be farthest from 
breathing a word, which assigned to them any work or 
power except what they derived from Christ. Is it 
necessary for me to tell the Brahmin how wholly and 
entirely they lost themselves in the love of their Lord ? 
" I determined not to know anything among you, ' 
says St. Paul, " save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 5 ' 1 
" We have the mind of Christ." 2 " Other foundation 
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ." 3 " Therefore let no man glory in man. For 
all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things pre- 
sent, or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are 
Christ's ; and Christ is God's." 4 'it is the Gospel of 
Christ that they preach ; the ways of Christ in which 
they walk. It is Christ whom they follow. 6 It is 
the body of Christ to which they belong. 6 Through 
Christ that they gain the victory. 7 Christ whom all 

1 1 Cor. ii. 2. 2 1 Cor. ii. 16. 3 1 Cur. iii. 11. 

4 Cor. iii. 21. 5 1 Cor.xi. 1. 6 1 Cor. xii. 27. 

' 1 Cor. xv. 57. 

2 e 3 



318 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



men must love under pain of being accursed. 1 Christ 
in whom they must love each other. 2 Christ their 
consolation. 3 Christ their trust. 4 Christ their preach- 
ing. " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus 
the Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 5 
" For Christ's sake they are delivered unto death, 
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in 
their mortal flesh." 6 It is Christ who shall raise 
them from the dead, and present their disciples with 
them unto God in the great day of judgment. 7 
Christ is their reconciliation to God, their righteous- 
ness, their peace, their sanctification, their redemption, 
their strength, their wisdom, their all in all. 

Yes, said the Missionary, and may God grant that 
we also tread in their footsteps. 

If we desert their footsteps, I said, where are we to 
turn? It is my wish to lead the Brahmin into the 
path which they marked out, and which in these days 
so many have abandoned. And I do this as the 
minister of a Church which rests her claim to respect 
on Apostolical authority. This is her voice when she 
prays : " 0 Almighty God, who hast built thy Church 
upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the head corner stone, 
grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by 
their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple 
acceptable unto thee through Jesus Christ our Lord." 8 
And in this prayer she only carries out the principles 
of the ancient Church, which, not content with re- 
ceiving a belief in the Church as an article in the 
Creed, thought it wise to add to Catholic. "Apostolic" 
— " I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church" 
— lest any one should suppose that he could build on 



1 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 
4 2 Cor. iii. 4. 
< 2 Cor. iv. 14. 



2 1 Cor. xvi. 24. 3 2 Cor. i. 5. 

5 2 Cor. iv. 5. 6 2 Cor. iv. 11. 

8 Collect for St. Simon and St. Jude. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



319 



any other foundation save that which was laid by 
Christ, and in Christ. 

I see, said the Brahmin, that you make the Apo- 
stles an essential link in the transmission of the truth 
from God to men, and therefore their testimony is 
obviously of great importance. 

It is, I said ; and yet perhaps this mode of speak- 
ing may not be without its evils. It may tend to give 
you very imperfect notions of the Gospel of Christ. I 
stand before you now, not merely asking you to believe 
in certain truths, but to join a certain society, in which 
those truths are preserved. And it is from forgetting 
or not understanding this that so many schisms and 
dissensions have arisen in the Church, each man 
thinking only of what he believes to be truth, and 
believing that to be truth which agrees with his own 
wishes and experience ; but careless of the duties 
which he owes to the governors and rulers of the com- 
munion, through whom it has pleased God to appoint 
that he should be instructed and bailt up in the 
knowledge and love of Christ. And to defend this 
mode of acting, they are accustomed to bring indivi- 
dual Christians immediately, as it were, into contact 
with the words and the acts of our blessed Lord, and 
to place them on their knees before Him, and to seek 
for knowledge and inspiration from Him by them- 
selves ; as if He had not appointed certain human 
channels, through which in a regular course these 
blessings were to flow — flowing from Him, remember, 
primarily and wholly ; and yet ministered to us 
through man — preachers to preach, ministers to ad- 
minister his sacraments, rulers to exercise discipline, 
spiritual fathers to beget us through Christ, and a spi- 
ritual mother, the Church, to nurture us in all goodness. 

And would you then, said the Missionary, exclude 
man from this personal, private, individual communi- 
cation with his Lord? 



320 



THE APOSTLE?. 



[chap. XII. 



0, ray friend, I replied, why will you charge me 
with denying one great duty and blessing of a Chris- 
tian life, because I do not wish that we should forget 
another? Why think that we must abandon private 
prayers, and private thanksgivings, and private con- 
fession of our sins, and private recourse to the word 
of God in our personal wants and difficulties, because 
we must think, chiefly perhaps and most fondly, of the 
public services of the Church, and of all the comfort, 
guidance, strength, and holiness, which may be pro- 
cured for us through her prayers and ministrations? 
To love our country is not to hate, or even to forget, 
our homes ; and he loves his country best, who loves 
his home most; and he loves his home best, who loves 
his country most. But we have forgotten of late years 
too much our social duties, and our social affectiuns 
towards the Church. Would that we could recall them ! 
And I would thus early biing them before the mind of 
the Brahmin, as of every heathen who was examining 
Christianity ; because without them he cannot be sen- 
sible of some of its chief claims upon his obedience ; 
and even if he should recognise them now, his faith 
will hereafter be liable to be shaken and distracted, 
unless he understands clearly the nature and the 
grounds of the system which he is required to em- 
brace. 

I would earnestly wish you, said the Brahmin, to 
conceal nothing from me. Let me hear all; for, with- 
out hear i ag ail, how can I decide aright ? 

I wish then, I continued, while speaking to you on 
the Acts of the Apostles, and pointing out to you some 
observations which you must verify for yourself as you 
read them, to remind you that the Gospel of Christ is 
an invitation not only to believe in truths, but to join 
a society ; and that the coming of Christ into the 
world had this object mainly among many others. 
Thus when the Apostles were first sent out, he com- 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



321 



manded them, " As ye go, preach, saying, the king- 
dom of Heaven is at hand." 1 And this is the common 
name by which the Christian dispensation is spoken 
of in the Bible. Now a kingdom implies a body or 
society of men, having one great sovereign at the head, 
though invisible, and subordinate ministers and officers, 
and a multitude of subjects, all held together, not merely 
by the profession of common opinions, (for these cannot 
well be either universal or durable, without some per- 
sonal rule and authority to bind together the varying 
minds of men,) but by allegiance to one common head, 
submission to one will, acknowledgment of some one 
centre as the source of all power, and the object of 
their affection. And thus, when you look into the pro- 
phecies, you will find that the scheme of Christianity is 
placed side by side with the four great empires that 
have before this prevailed in the world. And the 
Christian body is likened to a city ; and it is typified 
under the form of a tree, which is perhaps the most 
perfect example in nature of many parts being held 
together in one body ; and this is the very essence of 
society ; St. Paul also describes it as being like the 
human body, composed of many separate limbs, yet 
all united in one frame, and filled with one spirit, and 
obeying one mind. And even the whole of human 
affairs, and the creation of the world — even the evil 
which for a time God permits to prevail in it, is said 
by the Apostles to have been ordained or allowed, in 
order to the creation and setting forth of a bodv of 
men, who are in an especial manner to form a glorious 
society called the Sons of God : " For the earnest ex- 
pectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation 
of the sons of God." 2 And the uses of this body or 
society even in the present world are manifold and 
clear. 

1 Matt. x. 7. 2 Rom. viii. 19. 



322 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



Yes, said the Brahmin, in preserving the truth, as 
you before said. 

In more than this, I said ; in spreading and incul- 
cating it, in holding up high and holy laws before 
men, in controlling by warnings and advice the ar- 
bitrary wills of rulers and princes, in educating all 
classes, in binding together different nations and 
people by one common bond of amity. When you read 
the history of the Christian Church, mixed as it is 
with evil, the evil of human nature, you will learn 
how great a blessing it has been to the world in this 
its character of a society. But perhaps there are higher 
ends in its creation ; perhaps its destiny may be 
grander and more awful in another world and state 
of existence than we are now r able to conceive ; and 
the whole of created things may in some way be con- 
nected with it ; for so much the Scripture seems to 
hint, and even more than hint. But I would not wil- 
lingly at present lead the Brahmin into any such 
speculations ; only if he will keep them before him 
as hints and questions while he is reading the Bible, 
he may find much to be explained by them, and, 
what is more immediately to our purpose, he will un- 
derstand why I wish to dwell so much on the history 
and characters of the Apostles. 

I do not exactly see the connexion between them, 
said the Missionary. 

If, I said, Christianity, or the Gospel, be only a 
collection of truths and doctrines, we might naturally 
expect to find them given to us by the mouth of our 
blessed Lord himself ; and we shall look for them as 
men do look for them now 7 , in the inspired books, 
where assuredly they are bound to look, and assuredly 
will find them. But in doing this, they will be 
tempted to forget that they are members of the 
Church as a society ; and so the Church, as we have 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



323 



seen, will soon fall to pieces. But bear in mind 
that the Church is a society, and a society to be per- 
petuated under a fixed succession of rulers unto the 
end of time, and one spreading over the whole world ; 
and you will understand why the apostolical body, or 
college, occupies such a prominent place, even as the 
foundation of the building, in this vast scheme. And 
even observation of that which passes round us may 
shosv this ; for Christians, as you know, are divided into 
three great classes — first, the Romanists, or Papists ; 
secondly, the various denominations of Dissenters ; and 
thirdly, the true Catholic Christians, among whom we 
number our own blessed mother Church of England, 
and the great Eastern Churches. And it is impossible 
but that the Brahmin, when he opens his mind to a full 
consideration of the nature of the Gospel, will be beset 
by the various representations of these three classes. 
As a fact, we know that already he has had Chris- 
tianity presented to him under these three forms, and 
he knows not which to choose. 

Yes, said the Brahmin ; I have listened to Roman 
Catholics, and to the Missionary, and to yourself, and 
I confess that I am perplexed. 

And you will find, I said to him, that the real fun- 
damental point of difference between us is one con- 
nected with the nature and functions of the apostolical 
body. For dissenters seem almost to overlook it. 
They seek for a knowledge of the truth, and for rules 
of action, immediately in the words of our Lord, and 
consider the Apostles as little more than good men, 
teachers and preachers, as we may be at the present 
day ; they do not suppose them to have been de- 
positaries of any knowledge which we may not attain 
without them. Practically, indeed, they acknowledge 
that their writings are inspired, but even this they 
are unwilling to prove by any mode of argument 
w hich would invest human beings with extraoidinary 



324 



THE APOSTLES. [CHAP. XII. 



powers or privileges. And on the other hand the 
Romanists, though professing, like ourselves, to be 
built on the apostolical body, calling their bishop 
apostolical, as if in exclusion of all others, and making 
high pretensions to the sanction of apostolical tradition, 
do really set aside the apostolical body as much as 
dissenters ; for they recognise only one of the Apostles 
as having virtually any authority, namely, St. Peter. 
They make him, individually, the foundation of the 
Church, and the fountain-head of all its privileges ; 
and then, without a title or a proof, they claim to 
themselves, that is to their own bishop, all the power 
which they thus claim for St. Peter. It is not good 
to speak harshly of others; but surely they who thus 
tamper with the true constitution of the Church as 
appointed by our blessed Lord, and do this, not on 
grounds of authority and testimony, but because their 
own system seems wiser and better than the Lord's, 
will one day be compelled to give an awful account 
of their stewardship, and of the souls whose ruin they 
may have caused. But we, I said, the Church Catholic 
of England and of the East, build on the whole body of 
the Apostles, as the appointed foundation laid for the 
whole Church by Christ himself. We allow that 
St. Peter personally took the lead among them, from 
the zeal and earnestness of his character ; so it must 
be in every society, where, nevertheless, the lead and 
precedency of one member, acting as their mouth- 
piece or adviser, or presiding at their deliberations, 
in no way derogates from the equality of the rest in 
all essential privileges. But we assert this equality in 
the Apostles. All were made witnesses ; all were 
chosen and ordained by our Lord ; all received the 
Holy Spirit ; all were destined to sit on twelve thrones, 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel; to all the Lord 
spoke after his resurrection " of the things pertaining 
to the kingdom of God ;" all consulted together, all 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



325 



decided* together ; all formed one college, or body, 
limited in number, of which, when a vacancy was 
caused, the deficiency was immediately supplied, that 
no mutilation might exist, and the body might be 
perfect. Read the Acts of the Apostles, and the other 
Scriptures, even those of the history of the Jews, 
where this same arrangement is typified and pro- 
phesied by the heads of the Jewish tribes, and you 
will be convinced, I said to the Brahmin, that such 
was the constitution of the Church at the beginning. 
And such was the belief of the churches of old, before 
the bishop of Rome had been encouraged by the dis- 
turbances and enabled by the ignorance of the times, 
to assert and establish his tyrannical and unchristian 
usurpation, not only over the souls, but over the bodies 
of mankind. 

The Missionary seemed pleased and satisfied to 
hear me speak thus strongly; and I did so, not 
merely to remove his suspicions that in enforcing the 
authority of the C hurch I was inclined to verge to- 
wards Popery, but because, if men are to be warned 
against a crafty and insidious corruption of the truth, 
it must be by strong and decided words ; not stronger, 
indeed, than its criminality deserves, but not weaker ; 
lest we teach men to put darkness for light and light 
for darkness; and again, not directed against indi- 
viduals, who, under the blessing of Almighty God, 
may be preserved, and often are preserved, in holiness 
and goodness even under the trial of an evil system, 
but against the system itself. 

And now, I said, the distinction which we have 
just made will lead us, I fear, into a long discussion, 
and yet I know not how to avoid it. For without un- 
derstanding the true position of the Apostles in the 
Christian Church, you will neither be able to choose 
between the different denominations of Christians, nor 
will you understand the Scriptures relating to them, 

PART I. 2 F 



326 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. sir. 



especially the Gospels, to which we are now approach- 
ing. And there are many considerations connected 
with this inquiry which bear directly on our present 
object of examining the title of the Church to be re- 
ceived as an appointed minister of God. Shall we be 
content with touching on it briefly and superficially, 
or enter into it more deeply ? 

I entreat you, said the Brahmin, not to pass over 
anything which you think material. I am not one of 
those who grudge either time or labour in the pursuit 
of truth ; nor can I remain satisfied in inquiries until 
I have reached some general and ultimate principles 
on which I can rest firmly. Deal with me as you 
have offered to do — as with a man. and not as with a 
child. 

I was pleased with his earnestness and energy, and 
accordingly proceeded. 

There are, I said, in this question respecting the 
apostolical body two principles to be examined sepa- 
rately — one assumed by the Dissenters, and the other 
by the Romanists. The first, that of the Dissenters, 
is, that Almighty God in his revelation to man would 
place himself directly, as it were, if we may so dare 
to speak, in contact with men, as individuals only, and 
not address them by the voice, and rule them through 
the authority, of their fellow-men. The second, that of 
the Romanists, is that God would be pleased to ad- 
dress and rule them through human agency, but for 
this purpose would appoint some one individual as 
their head. Have I made myself clear? 

Perfectly, said the Brahmin. 

And the Church Catholic, I continued, asserts with 
the Romanist, in opposition to the Dissenter, that 
human agency would probably be thus employed, and 
actually is so employed; but it differs from the Ro- 
manist in placing the supreme agency in a body, and 
not in an individual. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



327 



I comprehend you perfectly said the Brahmin. 

And, I continued, if you have at all attended to the 
spirit of the arguments which have been used before, 
you will at once see that, although both the Dis- 
senter and the Romanist may be inclined to support 
their view by notions of human reasoning, and by 
views of expediency — the dissenter arguing from his 
own individual sentiments, and the Romanist from 
the individual sentiments of his bishop (for such is 
practically the case) — the true Church Catholic would 
not presume to decide the question by any such 
criteria, but would endeavour to ascertain what Al- 
mighty God had really appointed and done> and with 
this would be content. 

The Brahmin expressed his assent. 

Of this first principle, I proceeded, something has 
been said already ; and with you, my friend, in whose 
religious system the principle of faith, and the inter- 
vention of human agency is so entirely recognised, it 
will require little refutation ; but the Missionary, I 
fear, will not so easily assent to us. 

I do confess, said the Missionary, that I am deeply 
persuaded of the corruption and weakness of man, and 
of the abuses which he has introduced into all systems 
which have been administered by him; and I tremble, 
therefore, at any theory which would invest him with 
power over a revelation from God, or even over his 
fellow Christians, lest, like the servant in our Lord's 
parable, he " say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his 
coming, and begin to smite his fellow-servants, and 
to eat and drink with the drunken. 5 s 1 

It is too true, I said, that such prophecies have 
been too often realized; and I cannot read that 
parable without thinking of its exact application to 
the Romish Church, of which you naturally and justly 

1 Matt. xxiv. 49. 

2 F 2 



328 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



entertain so deep a dread — a dread in which I share. 
But in avoiding the sins of Popery, we must not 
abandon Catholic truths ; and you cannot deny, even 
confining your researches to the Scriptures, that in 
them throughout, not only in the Old, but in the New 
Testament, men are employed by Almighty God to 
govern and instruct their fellow-men in his name. 

It is true, he replied, of the Jewish people ; but 
they were a nation, and as a nation could only be 
governed by human hands. 

It is true, I said, of all the revelations of God to 
man : for Adam was bound to convey his knowledge 
of God to his children ; and even before the flood 
there seems to have been a peculiar class of men more 
immediately employed as ministers of religion, and 
called the Sons of God. 1 And Abraham was to be a 
blessing to all the families of the earth. 2 And then we 
reach the Jewish dispensation, where Moses and Aaron, 
not to speak of the patriarchs before them, were placed 
to rule over God's people. Nor is there any reason 
why the knowledge which he is pleased to reveal to us, 
over and above that which we might gain bv our own 
reason, should be communicated to us in a way dif- 
ferent from that which his wisdom employs in giving 
us our natural instruction ; and all this, we know, 
comes to us through the warnings, instruction, ex- 
ample, and assistance of our fellow-men ; so far 9 at 
least, that without such aid the seeds of knowledge 
sown in our minds will not ripen, or bring forth fruit. 

Yes, said the Missionary; but I would not deny 
that x\lmighty God is pleased to employ men as his 
ministers, (for this would be to doubt the whole analogy 
of his works ;) and perhaps it might be impossible for 
a divine being to communicate with man, except 
through the person of man : for man, we know, can- 



i Gen. vi. 2. 



2 Gen. xii. 3. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



329 



not comprehend, nor even bear to contemplate, the 
things that are of God, unless they are softened down, 
and veiled, as it were, in some lower form. But you 
seem to speak of the powers communicated to the 
Apostles as somerhing much greater than that of mere 
ministration, and that ministration subject to the 
supervision of their fellow-men ; and you seem also 
inclined to extend this even to the Church generally, 
as if there were some distinction in prerogative and 
power between one class of Christians and another. 

Certainly, I said, I do. For instance, although the 
Apostles were bound not to declare anything to man as 
coming from God but what they received from God, 
still it is clear that much knowledge of the things 
relating to the kingdom of heaven 1 was conveyed to 
them which was not revealed to the whole body of the 
disciples ; and that St. Paul received many revelations 
which it was not even possible for him to communicate 
to us. 2 And there are proofs of their acting in the 
government and establishment of churches with a de- 
gree of power and authority far superior to other 
Christians : in chastising, rebuking, setting in order, 
admonishing, and performing all the other duties of a 
superior and sovereign power ; and as such a power 
they were always regarded by the churches which they 
founded. 

And to what purpose, asked the Brahmin, would 
you apply this fact ? 

In the first place, I said, it may prepare you to ex- 
pect that you will find a far fuller development of the 
Gospel in the Epistles of the Apostles, than in what 
are especially called the Gospels, and which, contain 
the acts and teaching of our blessed Lord upon earth. 
And perhaps you will be better able to understand 
these latter, if you consider them chiefly as describing 



1 Acts i. 3. 



2 Cor. xii. 4. 
2 f 3 



330 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



the manner and principles on which our Lord formed 
and instructed the Apostles themselves for the work 
which they were called on to perform ; placing them, 
as it were, under a preliminary discipline ; telling them 
great truths in parables and mysterious sayings, just 
as we teach children the first problems of science ; and 
leaving it for the Holy Spirit afterwards " to bring to 
their remembrance all things which he had told them." 
Something of this view we may examine more largely 
by and by. But what I now wish to suggest is, that 
you must regard the Apostles as taking our Lord's 
place upon earth, and acting under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, I dare not say as an independent 
authority, (for nothing which they said or did could 
be independent of their Lord and God,) but with a 
far higher degree of authority than is possessed by 
mere servants, who move only as machines under a 
despotic influence. There is a degree of freedom, and 
power, and decision in all which they say and do, 
which betokens such a consciousness, and which is 
strangely contrasted with their conduct as exhibited 
in the Gospels ; and the contrast is so remarkable 
that no mode could be imagined of explaining the 
sudden change and inconsistency except that which is 
asserted in the Scriptures, and which we believe — I 
mean the infusion into their hearts of a divine and 
supernatural influence. Before this they were timid, 
now they are courageous ; before doubting, now strong 
in faith ; before ambitious, now humble ; before con- 
tentious, now full of love ; before ignorant of the 
Scriptures, now entering into the deepest prophecies ; 
before bigoted as Jews, now giving way to the admis- 
sion of the Gentiles ; before timid in the presence of 
their Master, now appealing to him with joyful con- 
fidence;- before distrustful of their own power, now 
working miracles without doubting, and speaking as 
men having authority. These and many other signs 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES, 



331 



of a most singular and inexplicable change, you wiH 
easily trace. It is in itself a remarkable proof of the 
consistency of the Scripture narrative. Will you 
examine it yourself in the several accounts ? 

I will endeavour to do so, said the Brahmin. 

And, I continued, if such a supernatural influence 
be allowed, (and I know not how it is to be denied,) 
then the objection of the Missionary falls to the 
ground; for the Apostles would no longer be the blind, 
corrupt, fallible men of whom with so much reason he 
is afraid ; but, by this divine illumination and guidance, 
this guidance of that Holy Spirit who proceedeth from 
the Father and the Son, they would be enabled to fill 
our Lord's place upon tbe earth until his coming again. 
For the Missionary will allow that man is employed 
by God to govern man in the ordinary affairs of life ; 
and only in this way of God's providence can we 
supply the two needs of our nature : — first, the esta- 
blishment of a divine power, which shall convey to 
mankind all the blessings which the Christian Church 
holds out, of truth, and goodness, and peace, and com- 
munion with man and God ; and, secondly, what 
seems equally requisite for our infirm nature, and for 
the preservation of the analogv of God's dealings, that 
this power should be intrusted to the hands of human 
beings. And the history of the Church itself would 
bear out the supposition. 

And why should it seem necessary, said the Mis- 
sionary, that su:h a power should be intrusted to 
man ? 

I would not willingly, I replied, use the word ' ne- 
cessary,' for it would imply more certainty as to the 
mysterious dealings of God's providence than man 
may dare to assume. But I will mention a few points 
which may deserve consideration, and which may re- 
move some of the difficulties connected with the pecu- 
liar offices and declarations of the Catholic Church. 



332 



THE APOSTLES, 



[CHAP. XII. 



In the first place, you have yourself mentioned one. 
It may be, and both our reason and the Scriptures 
seem to show, that there is some impossibility in re- 
vealing a spiritual being, glorious as the Almighty 
God, to beings of flesh. Observe, that our senses 
are the only direct channels through which we de- 
rive, directly or indirectly, all our knowledge, ex- 
cept those deep and secret principles which are wrapt 
up in our minds from our birth ; and even these seem 
to be brought out into activity and consciousness only 
by the operation of the senses. Do I make myself 
understood ? 

Not exactly, said the Brahmin. 

I will not, then, perplex our inquiry with these dis- 
tinctions as to the origin of our knowledge. I was 
thinking of false notions which prevailed on this 
question, and desired to guard against them ; but we 
will be content with remembering that our senses, that 
is, organs of flesh and blood, are the chief, if not the 
only avenues by which knowledge can reach the mind ; 
and these senses would evidently be completely over- 
powered by any worthy manifestation of the Divine 
presence. " Thou canst not see my face," said the 
Lord God himself to Moses, " for there shall no man 
see me and live." 1 If, therefore, our great Creator 
manifests himself to man, it must be through some 
visible and tangible form, veiled in some shape which 
the senses can endure ; and there seems none which 
he could bear — (I would speak with all reverence and 
caution) — none which it would seem that he could 
bear without the greatest degradation both to his own 
all-glorious nature, and to the men whom he addressed, 
but that of man. Observe, I entreat you, that this 
enshrining the supreme Divine nature in a human 
nature is not according to the invention of man : it is 



1 Exod. xxxiii. 20. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



333 



itself a remarkable peculiarity, and proof of more 
than human origin in Christianity ; for human reason, 
whenever it has lifted itself up to think on the Divine 
perfections, and has compared them with the weakness 
and sinfulness of man, has feared to blend together so 
much majesty with so much vileness. It has severed 
the Divine nature wholly from the material world, and 
then, finding itself obliged to use sensible representa- 
tions of it, familiarizing it to the mind of sensual man, 
it has had recourse to visible signs and symbols, by 
which it did not intend to picture the Almighty, but 
to suggest the idea of his perfections. This has been 
the origin of all idolatry ; and it was the origin of the 
religious system which the Brahmin himself holds. 
The result of this is before our eyes. Man, ignorant 
and weak man, could not draw this subtle distinction 
between the representative and the suggestive use of 
such symbols ; and as, generally, for the very purpose, 
it might seem, of preventing the confusion of ideas, 
or the worship of the symbols themselves, they were 
taken from mean, loathsome, and degrading objects, 
when man began to worship them, he sank rapidly 
into every kind of degradation and wickedness, in- 
dulging all his natural sins under the name of re- 
ligion. And thus it is now in this country; and so 
it is to a great extent even in Christian countries, 
where Popery has corrupted Christianity. 

And yet, said the Missionary, it is not uncommon 
for religious systems to speak of human beings, their 
founders and prophets, as inspired. 

It is not, I replied ; but the inspiration is of a dif- 
ferent kind from the divine presence of the Holy 
Spirit in the Apostles and the Christian Church. It 
is casual, irregular, or an external action of a superior 
power, guiding and informing the tongue or the hand, 
not incorporating, or (if I may so dare to speak) re- 
peating the great mystery of the incarnation of God 



334 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



in man. Think of the words of our blessed Lord, 
and ask if you can find any parallel to them in 
other religions: — "Neither pray I for these alone, 
but for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word ; that they may all be one, as thou, Father, 
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent 
me, And the glory which thou gavest me I have 
given them ; that they may be one, even as we are 
one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be 
made perfect in one ; and that the world may know 
that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou 
hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom 
thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast given 
me ; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the 
world." 1 

But is not this, said the Brahmin, the same as our 
own great doctrine of the union of man's soul with 
God? 

No, I replied, it differs much ; for your doctrine 
of absorption implies that the whole man is swallowed 
up and lost, with all his personal individuality and 
consciousness, in the abyss of the Divine essence, as 
the drop of water is lost in the ocean, as the spider's 
thread is drawn again into its body, and so practically 
vanishes from existence. But the Christian, even in 
his closest union with the Most High, retains his 
consciousness as man, feels love, and gratitude, and 
veneration, and awe ; discharges duties, performs 
services, delights in praise and adoration, feels still 
his life and being multiplied, as it were, and purified, 
and elevated beyond all that eye hath seen or ear 
hath heard, enjoys the consciousness of his own 
blessedness, is not lost or absorbed, or. to speak as 



1 John arm. 20. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



335 



we ought to speak, is not annihilated. And another 
distinction is, that you do not believe in the possibility 
of this union until the close and consummation of the 
sage's life, till after sufferings and abstractions from 
the body which all men cannot bear, and which if all 
men bore the world would become a desert. The 
Christian's union with his Lord God is commenced at 
infancy in baptism, when, in the words you have so 
often heard, he is made, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, 
64 a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor 
of the kingdom of heaven." And though it be not 
complete, nor can we know that it is ratified for ever 
until the trials of his life are past, and he has walked 
" worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called," still 
there is no moment in a Christian's life when we 
should dare to say that he has been cut off from it for 
ever, notwithstanding his infirmities and daily faults, 
until he be formally severed from the communion of the 
faithful by an act of the Church. " Though we be bap- 
tized and born again in Christ, yet we offend in many 
things ; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us." 1 I am quoting to you 
words from our authorized formularies ; and yet they 
proceed to say, " Not every deadly sin willingly com- 
mitted after baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and 
unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is 
not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism." 2 
And lastly they declare, "That person which, by open 
denunciation of the Church, is rightly cut off from the 
unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to 
be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an 
heathen and publican (that is, as no longer united with 
Christ by the gift of the Holy Spirit), until he be 
openly reconciled by penance, and received into the 
Church by a judge that hath authority thereunto." 3 



1 Article xv. 



2 Article xvi. 



3 Article xxxiii. 



336 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



And now, when you have considered these distinc- 
tions, I think you will allow that the incarnation of 
God in man, the personal presence of the Divine 
Being upon earth in a human form, blended with it 
and incorporated with it, as the Athanasian Creed 
describes our blessed Lord, and as the words of our 
Lord himself describe his faithful and baptized fol- 
lowers, is not a doctrine natural to human reason. 

You repeated those words before, said the Brahmin. 

Yes, I said, and I will repeat them again ; for it is 
not well to speak of such solemn mysteries except in 
weighed and authorized expressions. 

" For the right faith is, that we believe and confess 
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God 
and man. God of the substance of the Father, be- 
gotten before the worlds ; and man of the substance of 
his mother, born in the world ; perfect God and per- 
fect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh sub- 
sisting. Equal to the Father,- as touching his God- 
head, and inferior to the Father, as touching his man- 
hood. Who although he be God and man, yet he is 
not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of 
the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood 
into God. One altogether; not by confusion of sub- 
stance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable 
soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one 
Christ." 1 

It is a great mystery, said the Brahmin, after a 
pause. 

It is, I replied, a great and awful mystery, into 
which the human understanding cannot dare to pene- 
trate ; neither does the Creed itself attempt to make it 
otherwise. It only recites and declares the faith of 
the Catholic Church as Apostolically delivered. But 
for this very reason that it is a mystery, see you not 

1 Athanasian Creed. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



337 



that it could not have sprung from human reason ? And 
it is a mystery, because you cannot reconcile the 
greatness, and glory, and purity of God with union 
with such a poor miserable nature as that of man. 
And yet what are the words of Scripture ? " God hath 
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the 
world to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
base things of the world and things which are de- 
spised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are 
not, to bring to nought things that are ; that no flesh 
should glory in his presence." 1 If we knew more of 
the end and destination of the Christian Church in 
another world, for which it is prepared in the pre- 
sent, perhaps all this might be made clear to us : as 
it is, let us listen and believe what tells us of so 
much glory and so much blessing to our fallen race. 

Sir, said the Missionary, I would not willingly 
charge you with unfairness ; but have you not unin- 
tentionally swerved from the direct answer to our dif- 
ficulty ? I do not think that as yet the Brahmin or 
myself have entered on any question respecting the 
divine and human nature of our blessed Lord. I was 
speaking of the Apostles and of human beings, their 
followers, for whom you seem to claim a divine autho- 
rity nearly equal to His. 

A divine derivative authority given by Him, to be 
referred to Him, superintended by Him, operating 
only in His name, I did indeed claim, I said, for the 
Apostles, and for the Catholic Church still, as repre- 
senting them. A divine union with Him through 
His Holy Spirit surely you cannot deny, while you 
have the Scriptures before you. Did he* not send to 
them " the Comforter, who should abide with them for 
ever, even the spirit of truth who dwelleth with you, 



PART i. 



1 Cor. i. 27. 

2 G 



338 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



and shall be in you ?' n When Ananias and Sapphira 
were punished by St. Peter, was it not because they 
tempted the Spirit of the Lord in the person of St. 
Peter, 2 and "lied not unto man, but unto God?" 3 
Did not the Apostles, when they published their de- 
crees respecting the Gentile Churches, preface them 
with these remarkable words : " For it seemed good 
to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no 
greater burden than these necessary things ?" 4 Even 
of all Christians brought into the Church through 
their ministration is it not said, " They that are in 
the flesh cannot please God. But ye are siot in the 
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of 
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be 
in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the 
spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the 
spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell 
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that 
dwelleth in you?" 3 And might we not add passage 
after passage from the Scriptures ? Is not the Church 
called " the body of Christ," and Christians " mem- 
bers of that body in particular 6 " members of his 
body, of his flesh, and of his bones ?" 7 Is it possible 
to find language more strong, more definite, more 
urgent, than that in which, throughout the New Tes- 
tament, the union of Christians with their Lord by the 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit is described and en- 
forced ? 

Sir, said the Missionary, you cannot suppose that I 
doubt a doctrine written so clearly and palpably in 
the Word of God. This dwelling of the Spirit in our 
heart is our great blessing, comfort, and glory ; the 
earnest of our calling, the first fruits of our happi- 

1 John xiv. 16. 2 Acts v. 9. 3 Acts v. 4. 4 Acts xv. 28. 
5 Rom. viii. 8. 6 1 Cor. xii. 27. 7 Ephes. v. 30. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



339 



ness, our hope, and our wisdom ; but is it not given to 
us individually — ministered to us each in the secrecy 
of our own hearts — not by outward ordinances through 
the hands of man, as you would seem to imply? 
This is the real question before us. 

Yes, I replied, it is the question which has for 
years perplexed the Church, and caused our unhappy 
divisions. And the Brahmin, if he has not been dis- 
turbed by it already, will soon find it suggested to 
his mind. And practically it takes this form : — 
Whether our blessed Lord when he ascended into 
heaven constituted a body of men upon earth the 
depositaries of his doctrines, and the dispensers of his 
gifts in an ordinary and regular course ; so that none 
without a miracle might hope to attain to the doctrines, 
or to receive the gifts, except from the fountain-head, 
through channels communicating with it ; or did he 
leave no such body, but speaks now to each individual, 
and deals with him separately and independently- — so 
that each one may kneel down before Him and ask 
and receive his blessing — without a thought of any 
human being besides himself, or of any human society 
as able to assist him in obtaining it ? 

Yon have stated the case, said the Missionary, 
precisely as I wished to have proposed it. 

So that, I said, the real objection before made was not 
to the presence of a divine spirit in the heart of man, 
or to its gift by Almighty God ; but to its transmission 
through human hands by one part of the body as su- 
perior to another. And the real reluctance which 
you feel is to acknowledge a superiority in divine 
matters of man over man. 

The Missionary seemed unwilling to assent to the 
statement made in this form, but was unable to deny 
it. 

And the ground, I said, which you were disposed to 
take at first is not the real one ; when you said that 

2 g 2 



340 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



the Spirit of God could not dwell in hearts liable to 
sin, and actually sinful. For then it could not dwell 
in any man. And neither as individuals, any more 
than as the body of the Church, could we hope to ob- 
tain it in answer to our prayers ; but you do pray for 
it, you thank God that you receive it, you urge others 
to do the same, you believe that it is diffused abroad 
in the souls of thousands. Are you, are all of these 
holy, sinless, perfect beings, with whose nature it is 
no debasement for the pure and blessed spirit of Al- 
mighty God to come into contact ? 
The Missionary was silent. 

And that certain means are preferable to others for 
obtaining this great gift of the holy Spirit, you ac- 
knowledge as often as you use a particular prayer, or 
check a dangerous thought, or endeavour to frame 
your mind and your life into a temper agreeable to 
God, or adopt any mode whatever of making your- 
self more acceptable to him, whether by making your- 
self holy, or by employing, merely as instruments for 
this purpose, things and practices in themselves in- 
different. 

The Missionary was again silent. 

And you allow also, I continued, that certain men, 
frail, fallible, human creatures, are better able than 
others to assist you in obtaining this great blessing. 
For you prefer some books to others, and conver- 
sation of a spiritual and elevated character to that 
which is poor and worldly ; and the presence of men 
whom you believe to be good, to those who appear 
bad ; and the advice of the wise and prudent to that 
of fools ; and the instruction of those whose experience 
you think the greatest ; and the example of all holy 
men to that of the world. 

He assented. 

Practically then, I said, you do not believe that it 
is impossible for Almighty God to have made a 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



341 



partial distribution of his gifts, or to have placed them 
at the disposal, as it were, and distribution of any one 
class of men. 

He continued silent. 

Sir, said the Brahmin, the real difference seems to 
lie in what you have often suggested before — in the 
principle on w hich our teachers are selected — whether 
by our own choice according to our individual notions 
of their fitness and goodness, or by superior authority 
appointing them over us. 

It is so, I said ; and though I would not charge the 
good Missionary with the spirit which has usually 
dictated this demand for personal independence in the 
choice of our rulers, his theory (for it is no more than 
theory) necessarily leads to it He must, as we have 
said, derive his goodness and his holiness mainly 
through man as an instrument in the hands of Divine 
Providence, and a channel for his blessings. But he 
will trust to none but those whom he himself approves 
— in other words, to no one but himself. And you 
remember what we showed to be the consequences of 
this. 

Yes, said the Brahmin, that each individual has the 
liberty to create his own standard of truth and good- 
ness, and to choose his own teacher, and to follow his 
own way ; and thus men are torn and distracted into 
sects and parties ; and there being no fixed criterion 
of truth, every one claims the truth for himself, and 
denies it of all others, until all things seem equally 
false — and belief, and faith, and obedience, and law, 
and order, and society perish from the earth. 

But belief and faith, I said, and obedience, and 
law, and order, and society, and all the virtues and 
blessings connected with them, are essential parts of 
Christianity. What would be the blessing of religion, 
or could any religion exist, in which these were not 
preserved ? 

2 f 3 



342 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. xit. 



Will you allow me, I said to the Missionary, to 
ask a few more questions, not in order to involve you 
in inconsistent statements, as if we were arguing from 
contention, to gain a victory, (such is not the spirit of 
the Gospel,) but to reach the truth more easily, for 
the comprehension of us all ? 

I feel, said he, sure that you have no such inten- 
tion as to wrangle or debate, solely for the sake of 
rivalry, and you shall put to me any questions that 
you like. 

We are not then, I proceeded, all of us equally wise 
and equally good — the very fact of our birth places 
some of us in a lower position than others. That one 
man is born a few hours after another may diminish 
the extent of his knowledge, and therefore of his ex- 
perience — is it not so ? 

He assented. 

And, I continued, this difference of age, and know- 
ledge, and power divides us naturally into two classes, 
the governing and the governed. 

It does, he said. 

And from these mutual relations proceed nearly all, 
if not all, the duties, affections, and virtues of life ; so 
that no one is placed here without some one whom, 
indirectly at least, he may not form to goodness ; 
and no one scarcely is so desolate as not to have a 
parent, or a brother, or a relative, or a friend, or a 
neighbour to whom he may look up as his guide, and 
in some degree as his master. 

It is so. 

And when we first commence to think on religion, 
and to feel its stirrings within our hearts, or, as members 
of a Catholic Church should speak, when first we are 
admitted into that Church by holy baptism, we are, 
at this dawn of our spiritual life, what we are at the 
beginning of our earthly life, infants in mind, half 
blind, half instructed, helpless, and dependent, 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



343 



We are so. 

And we require therefore to be informed, and 
guided, and disciplined, and punished, and warned 
daily and hourly, and to have persons constantly 
before us, whose example should keep us in check, 
and whose voice should soothe or admonish us, and 
their arm guard us from evil. And this, I said, 
is the essence of government and of society — for so- 
ciety is an union of men supported by their mutual 
wants and mutual assistance. 

He assented. 

And are we competent, I said, when we are igno- 
rant, to choose our own instructor ; and when we are 
sinful, to choose our own chastiser ; or does the very 
duty of government and education imply that he 
who undertakes it must be placed over those whom 
he would govern, by an external authority — that he 
should be a law to them, not capable of being turned 
and twisted according to their own will and discretion — 
that he should have power to resist them — that he 
should stand firm when they would give way, and give 
way when they would stand firm, and should be able to 
moderate and control them in all their tendencies to 
excess ? Can government exist without a superiority 
of power in the governor ? Can any power create a 
power superior to itself? And if therefore the 
governed themselves are permitted to choose their 
governor, is not government itself destroyed ? 

The Brahmin expressed his concurrence. 

If then, I said, the Christian Church or society be 
constituted with any view of training up man in the 
nurture and fear of the Lord, (and who will deny it ?) 
it must have its governors and its governed, and its 
governors must be appointed over it by an external 
authority, and be armed with powers superior to those 
of their subjects. 

I will not deny it, said the Missionary frankly. 



344 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



And that this government should be intrusted to 
man we found to be not only in accordance with the 
ordinary dispensations of God, but perhaps absolutely 
necessary, from the difficulty or impossibility of man's 
bearing through his senses a visible communication 
with God. 

And yet, said the Missionary, still returning to his 
previous doubt, now that Almighty God has been re- 
vealed to us in the person of his blessed Son, both God 
and man, is not much of this difficulty removed ? Is it 
still necessary to employ inferior human beings as go- 
vernors of Christ's people? 

We know, I said, little or nothing of the ends to be 
attained hereafter by the present dispensation of 
things, and without knowing the whole we cannot be 
competent judges of its necessity. But one thing we do 
know, that it is a state of trial; and perhaps for the 
same reason that it has pleased Almighty God to place 
man as it were with his eyes blinded, in a far-off por- 
tion of the universe, hearing only dim and mysterious 
rumours of truths which to other beings above may be 
open as the day, and catching only faint glimpses of 
glory, which to eyes not of flesh may be seen out- 
poured on all around — and as it has pleased him to 
shut us up each of us in the shell of our body, seeing 
only through eyes of flesh, moving only by limbs, 
which seem rather impediments than aids to the 
movements of spiritual creatures — as he has made us 
incapable of discerning each other's souls, and of even* 
communicating our thoughts to each other except 
through doubtful and perplexing symbols of sounds, 
figures, gestures, and words — perhaps for this same 
reason Christ himself has retired into the heaven 
of heavens, and left as it were man to himself 
until his coming again. Did we see God before us, 
even in the form of deified man, our trial might 
probably be over. There might be little room for 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



345 



trustful love, none for hope, none for spontaneous 
obedience, none for the exercise of self-denial, none 
for deliberation and prudence, none for all those acts 
and virtues which make man a moral agent, as distin- 
guished from a mere machine moved only by exter- 
nal impulse. Ic may be that we are placed here now, 
as a child may be placed by a parent, purposely out of 
his sight, and only under the care of a tutor or 
governor. And such the Church may be to us — a 
power armed with authority and might from Him 
who is Father of us all, exerting only His appointed 
prerogatives, referring all things to Him, ministering 
only to his glory, leading us up to Him only, and 
owning itself of itself to be nothing ; and yet claiming 
our affection and allegiance, and able to minister to 
us God's greatest gifts and blessings in his name. 

And yet, said the Missionary, capable also of 
abusing them. 

Yes, I said, capable of abusing them ; and perhaps 
for this very cause more fit to serve as an instrument 
of discipline and trial. For if government implies 
superiority in one man over another, it implies also 
that the acts of the superior must in the same pro- 
portion be unintelligible to the inferior. The child 
knows little of the principles which regulate the 
actions of its parents ; the subject cannot comprehend 
all the reasons which influence his king ; the boy is 
perplexed with the teaching of his instructor ; and man 
dares not attempt to penetrate the mysteries of his 
God. And yet he must learn to obey God, though he 
cannot comprehend ; to obey perhaps in worlds here- 
after, though to comprehend be wholly impossible, 
even for the highest reason — even in a spiritual state ; 
and he learns this here upon earth by being placed 
under the control of frail and imperfect man, whom 
he may obey by faith in God. Bad men may have 
their trial fixed in the goodness of their governors — 
good men in the badness ; and there is no discipline 



346 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



perhaps more stern or more searching than for an 
ardent, holy, and well-instructed mind to be placed by 
God under the rule of men who are lukewarm, un- 
holy, and uninstructed. 

It is indeed so, said the Missionary ; and he seemed 
to feel deeply what I said, as if much of his own con- 
duct had been influenced by such a position. 

Do you remember, said 1, the crime of the fallen 
angels, as it is recorded in the Epistle of St. Jude, 
that they kept not their first estate, but left their own 
habitation ? 1 The words are stronger in the original ; 
they speak of a peculiar office and post of honour as- 
signed to those unhappy beings — of a dwelling set apart 
for them as their own, and appointed for them by 
another. And good and wise men in the Church have 
sometimes thought (it may be but a fancy) that the 
place of these disobedient angels is to be filled up in 
another world by the Christian Church. But be this 
as it may, and we must not trespass lightly on such 
mysterious ground, wherever Christians will have to 
dwell hereafter in another life, their office may require 
submission — perfect, unhesitating, undeviating submis- 
sion — to the once expressed^ will of their Lord and Mas- 
ter. It may require minds trained to adhere implicitly 
to his commands once received, to watch against the 
slightest infringement of them ; even as a soldier at his 
post, if he will discharge his duty, must not swerve by 
any will of his own from the orders of his commanders. 
Then only is man wise when he refuses to kno w any- 
thing but what God has commanded ; and then only is 
he strong, wdien he has surrendered himself wholly, 
soul and body, thought and will, into the keeping of his 
Maker. And he must learn this through temptations, 
sometimes perplexed by seeming inconsistencies, 
sometimes by attacks from enemies, sometimes by 
doubts from within, sometimes by a false prophet, 



1 Jude vi. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE AFOSTLES. 



347 



sometimes by a seeming miracle, but never perhaps 
more than when the leaders, under whom he is placed 
to be led on to the battle against the world, the flesh, 
and the devil seem to neglect their duty, and to aban- 
don the victory to the foe ; and he is tempted to start 
forward, and take the command upon himself. In all 
such cases the command from God is to "stand still" 
where he has placed us. 

And yet not to neglect our own duty, said the Mis- 
sionary. 

No, I said, to do all which God himself has or- 
dered us in our own place and office. If they who should 
watch over the flock of Christ become wolves, let us 
continue faithful shepherds ; if they are lukewarm, let 
us be zealous ; if they permit negligence of discipline, 
let us enforce it on ourselves ; if they allow the walls 
of the House of our God to be broken down, let us 
strive to build them up at each in our own place ; if 
they forget, or are silent, when truth is attacked, let 
us declare it ; and if they would command us any 
thing contrary to what God has commanded, let us re- 
fuse to obey. But let us refuse humbly, quietly, reve- 
rently, with awe and prayer, that we be not mis- 
taking a fancy of our own for an injunction from God, 
and so think w r e are doing him service by slighting 
his appointed ministers. Above all, I said, let us not 
leave our first estate, and our own habitation, or set up 
a government of our own. 

The Mission ary seemed sunk in painful thoughts ; 
and I waited for some minutes, but he said nothing. 

And thus, I continued, would it not be the case, 
that minds would be formed, even by the errors and 
frailties of their human rulers, more scrutinizing in 
inquiry into the positive commands from God ; more 
vigilant against any imposition ; more humble and 
self-denying; more full of faith in that Almighty 
hand which sways all the destinies of the world ; less 



348 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



inclined to trust in man as man, and yet encouraging 
and practising all the duties and affections which man 
owes to man ! Stand still and see the salvation of the 
Lord, 1 is not this still the watchword of the Chris* ian ? 
O my friend, had we but observed it, should we be 
now, as we are, distracted, and in peril of our life, even 
of that life of the Gospel which is truth itself ? 

And this truth then, you think, said the Brahmin, 
is one of the objects proposed in placing Christians 
under a human government, which is liable to err, 
and which you thmk has erred at times. 

It may be one, I said, of many objects in the coun- 
sels of God. I mention it particularly, because it is 
the sight of evil rulers which perplexes the minds of 
good men, and has led, and we may fear will lead again, 
to schisms in the Church, exactly in proportion to the 
zeal and piety which, under God's blessing, is now re- 
awaking among us. And when you yourself hear of 
the great privileges and awful promises of the Church, 
and then find, as you must find at times in all ordinances 
intrusted to the hands of man, that there is not a cor- 
responding earnestness and holiness in the lives of 
some of its teachers and rulers, you will be alarmed, 
and disposed to doubt the truth of the Gospel alto- 
gether ; or you will endeavour to frame to yourself 
some new system under a more saint-like government. 
And the end will be as sad to yourself as to the Church. 
What I have said often before I will repeat again ; 
your only question must be — Who are my appointed 
teachers f appointed, remember, by God; not — Who 
are in my own eyes the wisest and most fit to teach ? 

And how then am I to know this ? said the 
Brahmin. 

I have mentioned before, I replied, that it is by an 
outward sign, in which you can scarcely be mistaken. 



1 Exod, xiv. 13. 



chAp. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



349 



Remember how we have seen already that it has pleased 
Almighty God, in framing his blessed Gospel, to adapt 
it to the wants of men, who are made up of intellects, 
and feelings, and mind, and body ; whose intellects 
are developed only by degrees ; whose feelings are full 
of impurity and excess, until purged by a long disci- 
pline ; whose minds, as a whole, are in every point 
liable to err, and do err daily in their judgment 
and reasoning ; but whose bodily senses are perfect 
nearly from the first — perfect in all, or nearly all men : 
so that whatever difference there be between our 
opinions on right and wrong, and truth and falsehood, 
to-day and to-morrow, in this man or in that, no 
such difference, at least none worth regarding, is found 
in the judgment of our senses. To our senses there- 
fore Christianity presents the chief evidence which it 
would give us. Shall I enter into this question again, 
for it has been alluded to often before, and is vitally 
important ? 

I understand it sufficiently, said the Brahmin. 

It will then be enough to point out to you here, as 
you have seen already in the case of miracles, and of 
the historical testimony of Catholic antiquity, and as 
you will see hereafter when speaking of the Holy Sa- 
craments, that, in the appointment of ministers also, it 
has pleased Almighty God to establish through his 
Apostles a regular outward ordination by imposition 
of hands, conveyed through the hands of Bishops 
from generation to generation, from the time of the 
Apostles. You also recognise the necessity of some 
outward mark, by which your people may distinguish 
their spiritual fathers from other men : you wear a 
peculiar symbol ; but you designate Brahmins by their 
birth, — a mark which is far more likely to admit 
of imposition, either by improper intermarriages, or 
by the substitution of one child for another, than 
cur ordination, performed as it is solemnly in the pre- 

part i. 2 H 



350 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. X*II, 



sence of many witnesses, and attested by written docu- 
ments which the minister is bound to produce when- 
ever they are called for. But let us not dwell longer 
on a point which has been so often alluded to before. 

May I ask you, said the Missionary, before we pass 
on, one question w T hich seems to me to overthrow this 
argument of yours ? You w^ould trace this succession 
of your ministers from Apostolic times, and by the hands 
of Bishops ; but your Bishops themselves are ap- 
pointed by your kings, who form no part of your 
priesthood. How do you reconcile this? 

Into the mode in which our Bishops are appointed. 
I said, we may find some other occasion to inquire ; 
but that they should be nominated by the king in no 
way interferes with the fact that they can only be con- 
secrated by Bishops. You must be aware that if the 
Archbishops and Bishops refuse to consecrate an 
individual, however urgently recommended by the civil 
power, he never could become a Bishop ; and the same is 
to be said of a Priest. Nothing can give with us any 
spiritual power in the Church, such as preaching the 
word, and administering the Sacraments duly, but 
Episcopal ordination and appointment. I am aware 
that your objection is one which is often felt ; and 
therefore I would thus far remove it at once. But to 
preserve more closely the chain of our inquiry, I 
wished at present to suggest to the Brahmin another 
reason, why it may have pleased the Almighty to em- 
ploy human rulers in the government of the Church, 
and to withdraw himself as it were from sight, leaving 
for a time man to himself. 

To what are you alluding ? said the Brahmin. 

We have spoken, I said, already of men, as being 
placed by Nature herself necessarily in a state of 
society — as bound to each other by mutual wants and 
weaknesses— as reciprocating various affections and 
duties — as charged with the care of each other's 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE AFOSTLES. 



351 



minds as well as of their bodies— as distributed by 
the very imperfections of their conditions, and still 
more by their noblest instincts, into governors and 
the governed. 

We have so, said the Brahmin ; and though, as I 
learn, in your country there are men disposed to 
disparage and destroy (as if it were possible) this 
plan and institution of God, here we reverence and 
maintain it as sacred. 

You do, I said ; and it is this very fact, and this 
reverence for government which you feel, that gives 
to thoughtful minds the hope of one day bringing you 
to the knowledge of the Gospel, the beginning of 
which is faith, and the end of it obedience, and the 
spirit of it order and law. God has indeed instituted 
government — government of all forms — as a holy 
ordinance ; and he seems so to have formed men, 
that none shall be left without some share in it. All 
men have ambition ; all some degree of power ; all 
are placed in contact with other minds ; all have the 
means and the desire of influencing and directing some 
among them. It may be that government is one of the 
chief lessons which we are placed upon earth to 
learn ; that we are here to be disciplined and instructed 
in this as much as in the work of obeying. It may 
be that, in another world, the minds which here have 
learned to govern well — to govern, that is, in constant 
submission to the law of God above them, humbly, 
moderately, firmly, with prudence and consistency, 
thinking not of themselves, but of their God above, and 
their subjects below, and purchasing the good of their 
subjects at any personal sacrifice — it may be, that 
these souls are destined by God to fill some post of 
government in another state of existence ; and that 
here also, as in so many other instances, " many are 
called, but few are chosen ; 35 numbers are placed in 
this state of trial, of whom only a few pass through 

2 h 2 



352 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



the fire safely ; and the many perish. So the tree 
comes forth in the spring full of bloom, but only a 
few blossoms ripen into fruit. So the animal gives 
birth to innumerable young, of which all but a few 
must perish. So men themselves come into life, all 
organized as if to live for ever ; but how few reach 
to maturity I So souls, living souls, are created, all 
instinct with tendencies to God, all placed under 
laws of God, all capable of perfection and happiness ; 
and yet how few will be saved ! How few, even in 
our own sight, are the good and the wise! How 
many the bad and the foolish ! " Many are called, 
but few are chosen !" 

When you spoke of Christians, and men who had 
governed in the Church faithfully, being employed 
perhaps in some work like that of government in 
another world, you alluded, I suppose, said the Mis- 
sionary, to such passages as these : — " Who then is a 
faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made 
ruler over his household to give them meat in 
due season ? Blessed is that servant whom his 
Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Yerily 
I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over 
all his goods." 1 And then follows the awful denun- 
ciation which was mentioned before, respecting the 
punishment of the unfaithful servant. 

Yes, I said. And you might add to this the 
parable of the ten talents, which you can show the 
Brahmin, and the promise of our Lord to his 
Apostles, that they should sit on twelve thrones, 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; and the hopes 
expressed by St. Paul of some peculiar crown set 
apart for those who "had laboured most abun- 
dantly;" and many other passages in Scripture ; 
without which we might indeed venture to form 



1 Matthew xxiv. 45. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES, 



353 



some faint conjecture of such a plan, but could not 
dare to propound it as if it were certainly true. 

And perhaps, said the Missionary, we might here 
mention to the Brahmin that the very fact that the 
existence of evil and unworthy ministers is again 
and again distinctly prophesied at the very foundation 
of the Church — this is in itself an answer to the 
objection, that such a system could not have been 
instituted by God; just as, when our blessed Lord 
foretold his own sufferings and death, it proved that 
they were voluntarily encountered. 

This was almost the first symptom which I had 
observed in the Missionary of a willingness to co-ope- 
rate with my own reasonings, as if we both had one 
common object in setting the truth of Christ before 
the heathen mind, and to do so must act together as 
members of one body. 

Without entering further, I replied, into the ques- 
tion which led us into this discussion respecting the 
employment of human rulers, let us sum it up thus : 
that there is in it nothing contrary, but rather every 
thine: agreeable, to the other dealings of God in nature ; 
that it seems necessary as a medium of communication 
between imperfect, and earthly, and sensual man, and 
an all-glorious Spirit; that it is sanctioned by the 
very fact of the incarnation of our Blessed Lord to 
undertake the office of the Word of God, or the 
revealer of God to mankind ; that even the bringing 
into contact with evil hands the dispensation of vast 
and awful spiritual privileges is not inconsistent with 
the dealings of that God, who did not himself refuse 
to sit at meat with publicans and sinners, nor dis- 
dain the Virgin's womb, nor the death upon the 
accursed cross, nor the weeping Magdalen, nor the 
penitent thief; who chose Judas among his Apostles, 
and sent his Holy Spirit into the minds of men 
who perverted it to vanitv and strife ; that such 

2 h 3 



354 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



privileges no way interfere with the strict moral 
dispensations of his justice; for where there is not 
charity and faith, they become only greater condem- 
nation ; that the employment of man seems neces- 
sary in a system of trial, serving as a trial of obedi- 
ence and faith to the subject, and of the duties of 
government to the ruler ; that without it human 
society could not exist ; for if man were bound only 
to his God, he would not be bound to his fellow- 
creatures, and without society in all things man is 
nothing ; that it is necessary, for the purpose of man's 
own education, that he should have before his senses, 
constantly standing at his side, living and personal 
agents to warn and rebuke, and encourage and punish 
him, in religion as in all other duties — that these 
agents should be various, as acting upon various 
minds — spread everywhere, present everywhere — 
human beings like himself, with whom he can sym- 
pathize ; that even when our Lord was upon earth 
he chose for this purpose a body of immediate dis- 
ciples, thus multiplying himself as it were, and 
dividing himself, upon the principle of all govern- 
ment, which is embodied in one head, and yet must 
act through many members obedient to that head ; 
that we know not how this ubiquity could be recon- 
ciled with the personal visible presence of our 
blessed Lord upon earth ; that if the imperfections of 
his ministers render the distribution of this great 
blessing partial and imperfect likewise, leaving some 
regions, and individuals, and ages in darkness, and 
diffusing light over others — this is only in accordance 
with the general plan of Providence, which is manifold 
and various in the proportions of all his gifts ; 
that wherever the outward ministration be defective, 
and yet the heart of the subject be humble, docile, 
and obedient, there the external want will be sup- 
plied by a more abundant spiritual influence from 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



355 



Him " to whom all hearts are open, and from whom 
no secrets are hid ;" that the very trial to which such 
humble minds are exposed is a blessing, if it make 
them more faithful, more docile, and more obedient ; 
and may I repeat, what I would now urge again upon 
the Brahmin, that it is a singular evidence that the 
system comes from God ? 

I scarcely see this, said the Brahmin. 

Because, I said, it is unlike what human reason 
by itself would imagine ; for human reason, as we 
before saw, shrinks from thus connecting the highest 
gifts of that Spirit with the gross forms of matter — 
because this employment of frail human agents put 
side by side with the declaration of the Gospel, that 
the Church should never be destroyed, that "the 
gates of hell should not prevail against it," that 
" Christ's kingdom should have no end," that " Christ 
himself would be with it, even to the end of the 
world," — this conjunction, I say, is so difficult, or 
rather to human eyes is so impossible to be realized, 
that nothing can render the prophecy of it probable 
but the certainty of a miraculous power, overruling 
the wills of men, and fulfilling the commands of 
God. Look to all other systems, whether of doctrine 
or government, and see if they have not altered or 
perished under the lapse of years. Is your religion 
now the religion of your Vedas, or a new form of 
many superstitions, which those who know the Vedas 
best denounce as heresies and superstitions ? 1 If 
you say that Christianity also has been corrupted in 
the corruptions of Popery, and the multiplied errors 
of dissent, so it has been ; but if in any part of the 
world these corruptions have been shaken off, and 
these errors at the same time protested against — if at 
the end of 1800 years only one branch of the Catholic 
Church has proved faithful to the trust committed 
1 Preface to Wilson's Vishnu Purana. 



356 



THE APOSTLES, 



[chap. XII. 



to it, and still continues to bold up before mankind 
the testimony of God's truth, and the ordinances given 
by the Apostles, warning us to walk in tbe old paths, 
and maintaining herself on the same rock on which tbe 
Church was built by Christ— «here is a miracle, and 
tbe fulfilment of tbe promise. For tbere is no pro- 
phecy that all tbe Church shall adhere to its duty ; 
far from it — tbe whole voice of prophecy is full of 
"lamentation and woe" at the deflection and corrup- 
tion of the people of God. " And yet in it shall be a 
tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten : as a 
teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them 
when they cast their leaves : so tbe holy seed shall 
be the substance thereof. 1 As the shaking of an 
olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vin- 
tage is done," 8 " so few that a child may write them," 3 
a "remnant of numbers equal to the sand of tbe 
sea," 4 — this is the description given of those who in 
the last days " shall serve the Lord." 

Yes, said tbe Missionary, and here is the whole 
passage. Would that those would attend to it who 
think that number, and extent of empire, and internal 
prosperity are the signs of tbe true Church, and 
therefore look with fear on tbe boasts of Popery. 

Boasts, I said, which refute the very principle of 
Christ's Cburcb. But let us read the passage : " And 
it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of 
Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Judab, 
shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but 
shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in 
truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant 
of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though tbv 
people Israel be as tbe sand of the sea, yet a rem- 
nant of them shall return ; the consumption decreed 
shall overflow with righteousness." 5 

Isaiah vi. 13, 2 lb. xxir. 13. 3 lb. x. 19, 4 lb x 23 
5 lb. x. -20. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



357 



And though, I said, a system calling itself 
Christian, even when it struck at the very roots of 
Christian faith and Christian practice, was permitted 
in times past to spread itself over the world, and to 
number among its people nations like the sands of 
the sea, one portion at least, the English Church, has 
learned no more to ' stay upon him that smote her — 5 
him that by violence, and extortion, and cruelty, and 
the still worse persecution of the soul under a teach- 
ing which led men from their Saviour, compelled her 
at last under God's providence to break loose from 
her bondage, and to return unto the Holy One — their 
God — not according to her own self-will, but " in 
truth." And it may be that in her, even now, the 
prophecies will be fulfilled, which speak of glorious 
things for " them that are escaped of Israel." When 
we look at the vast dominions which it has pleased 
Almighty God to place under the rule of England, and 
to connect with her by a common language — her own 
great islands, — America, and Australia, whole conti- 
nents — the vast clusters of islauds which she reaches 
by her ships, and this immense district of India ; and 
when we see the Christians in the East and in other 
countries stretching out their hands to her to come 
and help them against their common enemy, the 
Popish Usurpation— it seems as if even now, sinful 
and neglectful as we have been, stripped as we are of 
much of the organization requisite for accomplishing 
great ends, and still suffering under jealousies and 
dissensions, yet God may have in store some great 
work for us to accomplish ; and may raise up in 
us again (as, blessed be His name, even now he 
seems to be raising !) a spirit which shall make the 
English church, even in the midst of darkness, " a 
tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the 
heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from 
storm and from rain ; L When the Lord shall have 
1 Isaiah iv. 6. 



358 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII- 



washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and 
shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the 
midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the 
spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon 
every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her 
assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shin- 
ing of a flaming fire by night ; for upon all the 
glory shall be a defence." 1 

But, my friend, I continued, why should I dwell 
on these words, which you cannot well comprehend, 
till you know more of the history of our country, 
and of Christianity itself? And yet your own sacred 
books are full of accounts and prophecies, which 
represent the course of man as a series of degrada- 
tions ; one age sinking beneath another, until at last 
the whole world is lest in corruption, and scarcely one 
just or righteous man can be found. 
Such is the case, said the Brahmin. 
And such representations, I said, are far more true 
than some which are current among us ; and which, 
against the authority of God himself, look back upon 
the past as an age wholly of darkness and ignorance, 
and forward to the future as an age of light : as if 
man improved upon man, and generation upon gene- 
ration ; the world beginning with demons or brutes, 
and ending with angels ; instead of beginning with 
angels and ending with demons. In this point our 
sacred books agree with yours ; and they both agree 
with reason, for ignorance cannot produce knowledge, 
vice does not generate goodness ; sin follows upon 
sin, blindness on blindness ; weakness increases 
with time ; and man once polluted or injured cannot 
restore himself to purity or strength. And thus, that 
any religious community governed by man should 
after 1800 years transmit to posterity one and the same 
religious creed, not keeping it shut up, but proclairn- 



Isaiali iv. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES 



359 



ing it to the world, and exposing it to all the 
changes and corruptions of popular feeling — that man 
should at this day in England, however faintly and 
imperfectly, be striving to walk, not in steps of our 
own, nor in steps of teachers chosen by ourselves, but in 
the steps of the Apostles of Christ, and to do and 
believe only what they would sanction — this is, I 
think, a miracle ; and it deserves to be thought of 
more than it has been thought of. 

You have omitted, said the Brahmin, one thing 
on which I should lay great stress if I were arguing to 
you on the truth of our religion, and which I see is 
found in yours. Is not this the real reason why 
some minds are so unwilling to recognise a human 
authority in religion — that if human authority is with- 
drawn, they are left free to follow their own fancies ? 
Is it not the test of real wilfulness and conceit of 
character, that we refuse to obey our fellow-men ? Oar 
system is full of respect to man, and of obedience to 
man ; and an obedient, trustful, humble spirit is a 
far better witness to truth than one proud and self- 
willed. 

It is so, I said; and with you I agree that tbe real 
motive for denying the interposition of man as an 
instrument in the hands of God to rule and guide us 
proceeds from our love of license. It is no certain proof 
of humility that we humble ourselves before God — that 
we obey him — that we confess our sins to him — that 
when his judgments are hard to comprehend, we yet 
submit to them with patience. For who would dare 
openly to contend with the Almighty ? When we 
do contend, it is under a false pretence ; we endeavour 
to evade his laws, we drive them from our minds, 
we put on them some false interpretation ; we do not 
openly confront them. But with men it is otherwise. 
There we think we are in the presence of equals ; 
and our self-conceit is shocked. And moreover God is 



360 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



not present to our senses. He punishes indeed, but 
punishes not always at the time, so that we hope to 
escape. But man is close before us ; and there is 
no mode of avoiding his chastisement but by overturn- 
ing his power. 

And why then, said the Brahmin, will you not 
allow that our system of religion, which is so full of 
this wise and humble spirit of obedience, is true ? 

I am not speaking,' I said, of the truth of one 
system or another, judging by its moral tone; but of 
the confirmation given by such a moral tone to the 
claim which its ministers make to be received as 
ambassadors from God. And the very obedience 
w r hich you enforce, and the reverence to your reli- 
gious teachers, militate against any such claim. 
You do indeed allow, like us, that human beings are 
employed under God to preserve the knowledge of 
his truth among their fellow-men, and you regard 
such a class almost as themselves divine ; but such 
claims may be made and enforced for the mere 
purpose of upholding a spiritual power founded 
in self-love and ambition. Are the duties of your 
Brahmins such as those practised by the Apostles of 
Christ, and inculcated by them on all the ministers of 
Christ ? Are you bound to sacrifice yourselves in all 
things to the good of all men ? Or are you content 
w r ith receiving their homage, and living a life, if not 
of selfish enjoyment, at least of quiet and abstraction ? 
You demand to be honoured with gifts, so do the 
ministers of Christ require to be supported by Chris- 
tians ; but are you bound yourselves to live a life of 
poverty, so that when you refuse aid to the poor, or 
indulge in luxuries (as we, alas ! too often do) you 
carry with you, as we do, your own condemnation ? 
You are separated from the rest of your people by 
the stern barrier of castes — so are the ministers of 
Christ distinguished in honour from their flock. But 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



361 



v, ith you is it that you may labour among them more 
earnestly and affectionately for their good? Other 
nations, many other nations, have before this been 
placed under the dominion of a priestly body, which 
has ruled them, and ruled them, in many respects, 
not ill ; but the object of the rule has been, not the 
goodness, the know ledge, the happiness of the people, 
but the power of the ruler. Think how the Apostles 
of Christ would bid us his ministers labour, as they 
also laboured themselves : " For I think," says St. 
Paul, " that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, 
as it were appointed to death ; for we are made a 
spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 
We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in 
Christ ; we are weak, but ye are strong ; ye are 
honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this 
present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are 
naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwell- 
ing-place ; and labour, working with our own hands. 
Being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer 
it; being defamed, we entreat; we are made as the 
filth of the earth, and are the off-scouring of all 
things unto this day." 1 

Yes, continued the Missionary, and think how he 
speaks more particularly of his own toils and suffer- 
ings : c< In labours abundant, in stripes above mea- 
sure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft ; of the Jews 
five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice was 
I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suf- 
fered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in 
the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country- 
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, 
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren; in weariness and pain- 
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
1 1 Cor. iv. 9. 

PART I. 2 I 



362 



THE APOSTLES. 



[CHAP. XII. 



fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those 
things that are without, that which cometh upon me 
daily, the care of all the Churches. Who is weak, 
and I am not weak ? Who is offended, and I burn 
not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the 
things which concern mine infirmities. The God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed 
for evermore, knoweth that I lie not." 1 

Such, I said, were the necessary accompaniments of 
those high supernatural privileges which the Apostles 
claimed and exercised ; and such must be put side by 
side with the same claims when made by their suc- 
cessors. If we do not fulfil these conditions our- 
selves — if we are slothful, self-indulgent, living in 
comfort and ease, and not thinking of those whom, if 
we are placed to rule, we are also placed to bless at a 
sacrifice of ourselves, we are not obeying the com- 
mands of Christ — we preach our own condemnation. 

And you lose your privileges, said the Brahmin. 

No, I said, not so far as concerns you, who seek 
to be blessed by God through our hands. Here also 
observe the care and mercy which God in the 
Catholic Church has shown to man, while intrust- 
ing his blessings to the hands of faithless men. Let 
me repeat to you the words of our own Church : 
" Although in the visible Church the evil be ever 
mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have 
chief authority in the ministration of the Word and 
Sacraments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same 
in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister 
by his commission and authority, we may use their 
ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in the 
receiving of the Sacraments. Neither is the effect of 
Christ's ordinance taken* away by their wickedness, 
nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such, 
as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments 
1 2 Cor. xi. 23. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



363 



ministered unto them ; which be effectual, because 
of Christ's institution and promise, although they be 
ministered by evil men. Nevertheless, it apper- 
tained to the discipline of the Church, that inquiry 
be made of evil ministers, and that thev be accused 
by those that have knowledge of their offences, and 
finally, being found guilty, by just judgment be 
deposed." 1 Here also observe that such a doctrine is 
unlike a system formed by man, for the purpose of 
placing power in the hands of man. For such a 
system, as in the Romish Church it is practically 
adopted, represents the human minister as armed 
unconditionally w T ith these powers ; as almost acting 
independently of the Divine superintendence. God 
has given to us his ministers power " to declare and 
pronounce to his people, when penitent, the absolu- 
tion and remission of their sins." And the Romish 
system, established, as I have told you before, for the 
purpose of governing and commanding men, gives to 
the priest a right of absolution, which almost super- 
sedes any exercise of Divine jurisdiction. God has 
prohibited any one from administering his holy 
sacraments unless he be duly appointed ; but the 
Romish Church has so extended the power of the 
duly appointed minister as to make his intention 
a necessary condition of the validity of the sacrament, 
giving him thus the privilege of withholding even 
from faithful, dutiful worshippers, the gift which they 
seek of divine grace. And thus, by accustoming 
the people to look to the priests as exclusively the 
channels of God's blessings, the people become first 
of all careless of their own part and conduct, and so 
are made wholly dependent on their spiritual superiors, 
regarding their own share in religious ceremonies as 
a mere form, in which everything is to be done for 
them, and little but outward conformity is required 
1 Article xxvi. 

2 i 2 



364 



THE APOSTLES. 



[chap. XII. 



of themselves, — and secondly, as it is not possible 
always to secure the holiness of the priest, even by 
the strictest discipline, and yet his power is so great, 
his holiness becomes at last a secondary considera- 
tion, and he himself is venerated and obeyed, even 
though he has lost all moral claims to respect. And 
thus the priesthood obtain and exercise the greatest 
power with the greatest licence ; until men's eyes are 
opened, and startled with such obvious corruptions ; 
and, provoked with the hypocrisy or open guilt of 
their spiritual rulers, they shake off all rule together, 
and become infidels. Such has been in Europe too 
generally the history of the Christian Church. And 
I say that the Catholic Church in England, which 
makes the validity of the blessings which the. priest- 
hood dispense from Almighty God depend not on 
the internal character of the priest, but both on 
his external commission and authority from God, and 
on the right disposition of the receiver, is an evi- 
dence that that Catholic Church is really a minister of 
God. For while it exalts -God's ministers among 
men, it exalts God still higher, and gives to him 
all the honour and the glory. And while it makes 
the ministration of the priest essential to the blessing 
of the layman, it yet requires the layman to arouse 
himself to acts of vigilance, earnestness, and in some 
degree independent exertion : so that he ceases to be 
a machine at the mercy of a superior; and with 
every fresh exercise of his own strength, diminishes 
the means of his ruler to control him for bad and 
selfish ends, unsanctioned by God. 

The Brahmin seemed to assent. 

And may I add, I said, one more point of view ? 
I have told you how great and awful are the promises 
made by the ministers of God, and the offers of 
blessings which they hold out to you. If those offers 
be sanctioned and realized by Almighty God, you, to 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE APOSTLES. 



365 



whom they are made, ought to have the means of 
proving that they are fulfilled. If I say that I can 
give you a gift, without giving you also the means of 
ascertaining that you receive it, you may fairly dis- 
trust my words. But this is particularly done by 
the Romish Church ; for if the intention of the 
minister be requisite to give validity to a sacra- 
ment, the receiver of the sacrament can never be 
sure that the intention has existed. It is a secret 
thought which the eye of man cannot reach. No 
man therefore in the Romish communion can be sure 
that he has received the spiritual gift which he seeks, 
and which the Romish priests promise to convey to 
him through their ministrations. They cannot there- 
fore be convicted of holding out false hopes, and 
claiming power which they do not possess. If the 
unhappy Christian be disappointed of his immediate 
hope, and thus charges the Church with deceiving 
him, the Church can always account for the failure 
of her spiritual miracle by the absence of intention 
in the priest who proposed to work it. But a 
Catholic Church, like that of England, has no such 
loophole for escape. She promises, in the name of 
Almighty God, and by the working of his Holy 
Spirit, to give to all humble, faithful, penitent, and 
obedient souls, strength to conquer their passions, 
comfort in their afflictions, holiness of heart instead 
of sinfulness, and light instead of darkness ; to cure 
them of deadly diseases within their own souls, from 
which no human physician can relieve them. And 
she makes the fulfilment of her promise depend on 
two things, each within the experience and beneath 
the eye of the recipient. Let me repeat them again : 
first, on the external visible call of the ministers ; and 
secondly, on the internal acts of the recipient. Is this, 
I ask, consistent with truth and honesty of purpose ? 
And now, I said, my friend, let us separate for the 

2 i 3 



366 



THE APOSTLES. [CHAP. XII. 



present. Each time that we meet seems to open some 
new views, which I would not willingly omit to 
suggest to you : and we can do little more than 
suggest them. Let us turn to-morrow to the other 
principle, which was involved in the commission of 
the Apostolical body to preach Christ's Gospel, and 
to found his church; on which commission, rightly 
understood, so much both of your present belief and 
your future conduct seems to depend. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE APOSTOLIC BODY, &C. 367 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The same evening, and rather late, I was surprised 
by a visit from my friend the Brahmin ; and after 
apologizing for it, he proceeded to ask me if I had 
any objection to his bringing with him, the next morn- 
ing, to join our conversation, a Roman Catholic who 
had for some time past been endeavouring to convert 
him to that communion, and who, having heard of 
our discussions, had expressed a desire to be present 
at them. 

A common observer, I said to the Brahmin, must 
have been surprised, if he had heard me speaking to you 
so much as I have done on points of contrast and 
difference between our own Church and that of 
Rome, and the different sects of dissenters. Of late 
years, among Europeans who have been allowed to 
forget the real nature and privileges of the Gospel, 
it has been common to speak of Christianity without 
remembering that Christianity implies necessarily 
a Church ; as they also speak of religion vaguely and 
generally, forgetting that religion necessarily implies 
a creed. This is one of the worst symptoms into 
which, as I have told you, the English Christians 
have sunk by our laxity and coldness. May it please 
God that our eyes may each day be more opened to see 
the truth ! But such men would endeavour to make 
you a Christian, without speaking to you of any par- 
ticular form of Christianity. And all comparisons be- 
tween particular bodies and communities, each calling 
themselves Christian, they describe as partial and 



368 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



illiberal ; as if the creeds, which they all profess, were 
all human opinions — all equally open to doubt and 
criticism ; and the privileges which they claim were 
all equally open to assumption by any one. If you 
have attended to my words, you will understand that 
the Church Catholic of England takes her stand on 
a very different ground. Her creed is not of men — 
nor her privileges, nor her commission. She cannot, 
therefore, descend to place herself on a par with any 
which are thus derived. 

1 have under stood you, he said, to assert this from 
the beginning. 

And owing to this opinion, I continued, of modern 
days, you will be exposed to the endeavours of every 
different sect to convert you. Christianity, as I have 
before said, appears before you, not in one form, but in 
many, and you must choose between them. 

He assented. 

And of all these, I said, I know none more likely 
to prevail with you than the Roman Catholic ; which, 
nevertheless, I believe to be a form of Christianity 
most fatal to divine truth, and most prejudicial to 
human goodness. 

And why, said he, is a form so objectionable so 
likely to prevail with me ? 

Because, I said, more than all other forms of Chris- 
tianity which have departed from the Catholic faith 
and practice, it has retained the outward semblance 
and profession of Catholicity, which others have 
openly rejected ; and it is constructed upon profound 
principles of worldly wisdom ; is possessed of an 
admirable organization for carrying on its plans ; ad- 
dresses itself plausibly to every class of mind, and 
particularly to the more earnest and devoted ; and yet 
there lies at its root so deep a poison, that I doubt 
whether any form of dissent be really so permanently 
and extensively noxious; and for this reason, among 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 369 

others, that dissent cannot last — it carries within it 
the seeds of its own destruction ; while Popery is 
framed to last for ever, at least as long as human 
weakness and human sin. 

I would willingly, said the Brahmin, hear more 
of this extraordinary system ; for the Roman Catholic 
whom I mentioned has spoken to me much of it, and 
I confess there are things which he has said, both with 
regard to his own profession and to the state of your 
Church, which perplex me much. 

We might, I said, enter with propriety into this 
subject now, for in the course of our conversation we 
have arrived at the very point upon which ultimately 
the whole controversy between Romanists and the 
Catholic Church of England must turn : I mean the 
question as to the foundation and constitution of the 
Church — whether it be built upon one Apostle, 
St. Peter, or on the whole Apostolical Body ; for 
such is virtually the question more familiar to con- 
troversialists under the name of the Papal Supremacy. 
But I fear such a discussion will seem to lead us 
far away out of our course ; for we were speaking of 
the various contents of the Bible as confirming the 
claim of the Church which possesses such a series of 
documents to be regarded as a minister of God. iVnd 
we had reached no farther than the Acts of the 
Apostles, and then we were led off into several inci- 
dental questions ; so that it seems almost impossible 
to present you with a systematic view of the evidence 
which I am pointing out. 

If, said the Brahmin, I were engaged in teaching 
others, then a systematic technical form might be more 
desirable ; but I am a learner, and learners are better 
led on by opening, as they advance, the lines of thought 
which happen to present themselves, and to interest 
them at the time. 

You think then, I said, that a good teacher would 



370 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [cHAP. XIII* 



rather conduct a student through his inquiries as 
through a labyrinth in a wood, he himself holding the 
clue, and preventing it from being lost ; and not so 
much fixing the attention of the learner on the logical 
connexion of the different truths presented to him, as 
on the truths themselves. 

Such, I think, he said, is the fact. To place 
truth too systematically before men seems to me like 
unveiling the machinery by which a waxen figure 
may be made to perform movements like a man, or 
like explaining the process by which the tricks of 
our jugglers are accomplished. 

Or, I said, like laying bare to the eye the anatomy 
of the human body, instead of allowing it to influence 
the spectator by its beautiful exterior and play of 
feature. 

It fixes, he said, the mind on the wrong point, and 
may engender an acute, speculative, critical, intel- 
lectual character, but not that faith which, in prose- 
cuting its studies, never forgets the need of a teacher 
to stand by and guide him. 

I was struck with the justness of his remarks, and 
with its accordance with the known fact, that almost 
all the greatest and best impulses to the human mind 
have been given by works, to the ordinary observer, 
divested outwardly of a technical and systematic form. 

And another thing, I continued, which might 
encourage us in the seeming licence w r hich we propose 
to take, is that a system necessarily presupposes the 
existence of some one principle on which the whole 
structure is raised; and we have before seen that neither 
the scheme of the Gospel, nor the constitution of human 
nature, admits of such a single foundation. We spoke, 
if you remember, of binary truths, antagonist prin- 
ciples, as forming really the basis of all our knowledge. 
And thus to reduce all things in Christianity to a 
system, consistently w r ith truth, may be impossible. The 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 371 

very attempt to form one may be both a proof of our 
ignorance of its character, and dangerous. Nothing, 
for instance, is more unsystematic than the Holy 
Scriptures. 

Are we not, the Brahmin interrupted me, carrying 
the licence we have claimed too far, by entering on 
this discussion as to the merits of systematic teaching ? 
May I recall you to the question which I first pro- 
posed to you — whether you would allow me to bring 
the Roman Catholic, whom I spoke of, to our dis- 
cussions ? 

I must, I said, first ask you who he is, and what is 
his character ; for controversies with those who differ 
from us are seldom likely to be good either to one 
party or the other, unless there is a good and sincere 
disposition to examine the truth, humbly, earnestly, 
and moderately. If this be wanting, they too often 
end in vexation on the one side, and triumph on the 
other ; and the cause of the Gospel is rather hindered 
by them than furthered. I will ask you, first, if he 
be a long resident in India, following the belief of 
his fathers quietly and retiringly — or if he lately 
arrived among that body of priests who have recently 
come here, as to other countries, in order to spread 
their religion ? 

He has lately arrived, said the Brahmin, and 
belongs to a religious order who are active in dis- 
seminating their doctrines. 

Then, I said, I would rather not admit such a 
man to our discussions, and I will tell you the reason, 
The Brahmin listened with attention. 
If, I said, your neighbour came into your house 
and claimed it as his own in your presence, and pro- 
ceeded to give, orders to your servants, to set your 
children in opposition to you, and to make a number 
of alterations in your arrangements and buildings, do 
you think it would be a wise thins: to commence a 



372 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



parley with him, reasoning with him on the impro- 
priety of such proceedings, and entering into abstract 
questions of taste and feeling — or would you think it 
more advisable to abstain from all communication 
with him, which might be construed into a concession 
of his preliminary right thus to intrude on your pro- 
perty ? Would you not at once take him before a 
magistrate, and deliver him up to the law ? And if 
the law would not assist you, you would remonstrate, 
and protest, and exert yourself to open the eyes of the 
magistrate to the iniquity and impolicy of per- 
mitting such aggressions ; but, rather than compromise 
your own claims, you would submit to any oppression ; 
and the more so if the property thus attacked were 
not your own, but another's, intrusted to your care 
under a solemn pledge that you would not abandon 
it, and under an awful responsibility if you did 
abandon it. 

The Brahmin assented. 

This, then, I continued, is the course which ought 
to be pursued with these newly-arrived Roman Ca- 
tholics. If the government knew their own interest 
as well as their own duty, they would immediately, 
before these priests have obtained a firmer footing in 
the country, order them to return to their own homes, 
and prohibit any more such arrivals ; and in so doing 
they would be only following the example of nearly 
every country in Europe, which has before this been 
afflicted with similar visitations ; and they would be 
executing our own laws, which expressly forbid such. 
In this country, in any other but their own, they are 
intruders and invaders ; as such, disturbing society, 
and introducing all the elements of discord and vio- 
lence ; and as such, especially denounced in the 
Gospel, both by the practice of the Catholic Church, 
which they falsely pretend to follow, and by the 
Scriptures, which they dare not appeal to. 



CH.iP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 373 



And why then, said the Brahmin, would you make 
a difference between such men and another Roman 
Catholic who was naturally a resident in this country, 
and not a stranger ? 

For the same reason, I answered, that I have wil- 
lingly, and with pleasure, conversed with your friend 
the Missionary ; though there are many persons pro- 
fessing the same principles with himself, with whom 
I could not consent to hold such communication. 
And, for the same reason, for which it is my duty to 
converse with you, to visit you, and associate with 
you on terms, I hope, of mutual kindness and regard, 
though there are direct commands in the Scriptures 
to avoid communication with idolaters. 

And what is this reason ? he asked. 

Let us, I said, in speaking of forms of opinion, and 
systems of society, learn to make a distinction between 
the systems themselves, and the individuals who 
profess them. It may be that the system is bad, 
but individuals placed in it by circumstances over 
which they had no control, unable to find a better, 
and correcting its evil influence by the purity of their 
own hearts, may be good and holy — the more good 
perhaps, and more holy, so far as their trial and dis- 
cipline has been greater, from the very evil influence 
which they have been exposed to, and have resisted. 
And on the other hand, the system may be good — . 
all the principles formally promulgated may be true, 
but the common voice thus speaking may be over- 
powered by the sins of individuals. Xow I believe 
that the systems, both of the Romanists and of Dis- 
senters, among whom the Missionary unhappily 
ranks himself, are essentially false and bad — are de- 
flections from Catholic verity, fatal to Catholic piety. 
But the Missionary himself does not exemplify the 
faults of his system — he has escaped its infection. 
The spirit of dissent is violent, and he is meek — it is 

part i. 2 k 



374 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



proud, and he is humble — it is captious, and he is 
docile — it disdains all human authority, and he is 
reverent and affectionate — it is self-willed, and he is 
self-denying — it is the spirit of discord, and he 
prays for Christian unity and love; and we believe, 
gladly believe, that even among the w r orst forms of 
dissent there are many like him, many who have 
succeeded to their opinions, as we have succeeded to 
ours, from their fathers ; or who have wandered from 
the right way, from too fervent and irregular a zeal, 
when there was no one to warn them of their errors, 
and when, indeed, they might have had just cause to 
think the ways in which they were commanded to 
walk were cold and formal, and rather ways of the 
world than ways of Christ. Such men, my friend, 
are not to be treated harshly. They are erring chil- 
dren ; but their errors in the sight of God are, we 
hope, blotted out by the same mercy which, knowing 
the secrets of all hearts, makes allowance for all our 
temptations and difficulties, and on which mercy we 
throw ourselves hourly for the forgiveness of all 
our sins. And we hope that by kindness and bro- 
therly love, by setting the truth before them patiently 
and meekly, by acknowledging that we also have been 
guilty as well as they, and by kneeling down all to- 
gether before the throne of that Almighty God, who 
is the Father of us all, and who alone " makes men to 
be of one mind in one house," — we hope that by these 
means God, in his own good time, will bring back 
into his own fold of the Church — all who have been 
allowed by our past neglect to become dissenters, but 
who have not sinned in the spirit of dissent. And 
thus we should deal tenderly and affectionately with all 
those who seem to show in their acts that their hearts 
are not far from Christ. 

The Brahmin seemed to acquiesce. 

And so, I said, of the Roman Catholics. Here 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 375 

also is a system, containing, we cannot but believe, 
not only "fond things vainly invented, and repugnant 
to the word of God," 1 but " blasphemous fables and 
dangerous deceits;" 2 and founded on a usurped 
claim to a dominion, which, by the general consent of 
learned men, is both contrary to ancient practice, and 
unwarranted by Scripture, and destructive of the 
peace of society ; and yet under this system, in 
favourable circumstances, minds have grown up of 
the deepest piety; tainted, though somewhat, at least 
not fatally, by the vices of the atmosphere in which 
Providence had placed them ; living not as Papists, 
that is, not carrying out the evil principles which that 
system embodied, but only enjoying the good (for 
no system can be thoroughly evil) : just as in a healthy 
body the salutary parts of food are selected and in- 
corporated, and the bad are thrown off; and as some 
men remain in the midst of air which is charged 
with plague and pestilence, yet never suffer. With 
such men I would willingly converse ; and the more 
we converse, the more we might hope to do so in amity 
and concord, and finally to bring them back into the 
one fold of Christ. But busy, restless, ambitious 
men, who quit their own sphere, and intrude upon 
a province which is not theirs, for the purpose of 
making proselytes and extending the power of their 
Church, not of witnessing to the truth as it is in 
Christ ; who, to effect this, do not scruple to use 
artifices, and falsehoods, and forgeries ; who think the 
end justifies the means ; who argue not to discover the 
truth, but to overthrow opponents ; and whose whole 
plan of operation (admirable, I allow it to be, in 
worldly wisdom) is constructed to enslave the minds 
of others to man, and not to God — such persons I 
would rather avoid : as Christians we can only rebuke 



Article xxii. 



Article xxxi. 

2k 2 



376 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



them ; as civil magistrates, it would be well if those 
whose task it is to watch over the safety of society 
could be roused once more to a sense of their duty, 
and be induced once more to banish them from our 
territories. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, you are yourself in* 
truding on a province not your own. You are en- 
deavouring to make proselytes to your communion — 
why may not Roman Catholics do the same ? 

You ask me, I said, the very question which I was 
proposing to suggest to you when, at the close of our 
last conversation, I reverted to the second false 
principle assumed in respect to the office and func- 
tions of the Apostles in the scheme of the Gospel. 
We had observed that while Dissenters proceed upon 
the principle that no extraordinary power or know- 
ledge was given to the Apostles, which made it neces- 
sary for us to search out their practices and teaching 
by appealing to the Ancient Church, the Romanists 
on the other hand invest them professedly with great 
power, but yet practically supersede it by representing 
it as all concentred in one Apostle, St. Peter. Whereas 
we, as a true Catholic Church, acting upon Catholic 
principles, believe the whole Apostolical body to have 
partaken of it. Upon this Romish principle is founded, 
in the first place, the claim of the Bishop of Rome to 
one supreme jurisdiction over all Christians, so that 
whoever does not derive both his faith and his autho- 
rity in the Church from that one source is to be con- 
sidered as an heretic, and cut off from the privileges 
of the Gospel. How, I said, upon the principles 
which I have spoken of before, ought such a claim 
to be supported? 

The Bishop of Rome, said the Brahmin, can prove 
of course that he has authority from God to assume 
such a power. 

Will you ask, I said, the Romanist priest, who 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 377 



has been conversing with you, to show you any proofs 
of such authority ? 

But surely, said the Brahmin, such a claim could 
not be made without some foundation. There must 
be something in your Scriptures which speak of the 
Bishop of Rome as the person whom Christians are 
to obey ; or it must have been the practice in the 
times of the Apostles, and of their immediate suc- 
cessors, to acknowledge him as the head of the 
Church. 

I will ask you again, I said, to request a Roman 
Catholic to show you his proofs of these things, which 
indeed you might naturally expect. But shall I tell 
you the summary of the argument by which they will 
endeavour to convince you ? They assert, first, that 
St. Peter was the one chief Apostle upon whom the 
Church was built, and that he was armed with all 
the prerogatives now claimed by the Bishop of Rome : 
secondly, that his successors were entitled to all the 
preeminence which he himself enjoyed ; and thirdly, 
that the Bishops of Rome are those successors ; and 
remember that each of these links in the chain must 
be satisfactorily established, or the whole must fall 
to the ground. Ask them, therefore, to prove to you 
that St. Peter exercised any such dominion over the 
other Apostles, as the Bishop of Rome would exercise 
over all other bishops — if agreement with him was 
made essential to salvation, when his fellow Apostle St. 
Paul, as we learn from Scripture, withstood him to 
the face — if St. Pe:er claimed tribute and extorted 
money upon the ground of his superior privileges, as 
the Bishop of Rome does — if St. Peter claimed the 
right of trespassing on and superseding the authority 
of kings over their subjects — it* this spiritual empire 
extended to the Gentiles, when this province is in 
Scripture especially reserved to another Apostle, St. 
Paul — then proceed to demand proofs that any such 

2 k 3 



378 



CONSTITUTION OF THE . [CHAP. XIII. 



powers, supposing them to have existed, were, either 
in Scripture, or by the voice of Catholic antiquity, 
perpetuated by God to any particular successor of 
St. Peter in his apostolical office. Let him show that 
there were indeed any successors to any of the 
Apostles in this peculiar capacity, by which, as the 
first founders of Churches, they were distinguished 
from bishops. Then let him show you the proofs 
that the Bishop of Rome was such a successor, and 
that as such he was always acknowledged by the 
earliest ages of Christianity. Instead of this, the true 
Catholic Church will bring before you instance after 
instance where any such pretensions as those of the 
Bishop of Rome were indignantly repudiated and 
condemned. If, indeed, there be one fact more clear 
from history than another in the records of the 
Gospel, it is the independence of the several Churches 
established by the Apostles. They communicated 
together all of them affectionately and freely ; they 
were formed into larger knots and bodies, with 
some leading bishop for their president, as archbishop 
or patriarch ; but this was done upon a principle on 
which I must speak more at length, in order to 
bring you to the point which I wish to reach. 

What principle was this ? said the Brahmin. 

It was one, I said, which recognised the civil and 
political divisions of countries, and the rights of civil 
rulers. The bishops of one civil province formed one 
body, those of another formed another. The bishops 
of one kingdom became one distinct community in 
the Christian Church ; those of another kingdom 
formed another. But there was no right of inter- 
ference of one bishop with another — no attempt to 
unite bishops who, by their position, were subjects of 
separate monarchs, under one spiritual bead. This 
was left to be attempted by the Bishop of Rome. 

I paused here, for it seemed a long and wearying 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 3^9 

statement to explain the steps by which this usurpation 
had been perpetrated ; and indeed the whole question 
was one which nothing would have induced me to enter 
on but the certainty that the Brahmin would soon be 
exposed to the attacks of Roman Catholics, and 
without warning him of the principal point in the 
controversy, there seemed great danger of his being 
led away. But there was also another reason why 
I wished to give him some general view of the nature 
of Popery ; for it was clear that his own religious 
system had passed through several stages analogous to 
those by which Christianity itself had become corrupted, 
and it seemed desirable to place before him some brief 
sketch of them. 

Here again, I said, as before, many persons would 
be inclined to think that we were engaging in a ques- 
tion little connected with practical religion. They 
would think, if it was necessary at all to warn you 
against being misled by Romanism, that it would be 
wiser and more efficacious to speak of its doctrinal 
corruptions, of practices which seem to dethrone our 
blessed Lord from his supreme power over his Church 
and the heart of man, and to substitute for Him a 
human creature. And I do not say that such practices 
do not in themselves exist, or are not sufficient to deter 
any pure-minded Christian from leaving, for such a 
communion, a Church like that of England. But the 
ground which it were wisest to take for me, a member 
of the English Church, and addressing those who are 
subject to an English sovereign, is that which I have 
mentioned. 

I do not understand you, said the Brahmin. 

No, I said ; and perhaps you will not be able to do 
so thoroughly till you have become a Christian, and 
then, being received into the English Church, you will 
feel yourself identified with the English people, and 
will own the same sovereign power, and the same laws ; 



380 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII, 



and being incorporated with us as one nation, you will 
feel that you have no right to transfer your allegiance 
to another head than that under which God has 
placed you. For this is the real question in Popery. 
Shall I ask you a few questions ? 
Ke signified his consent. 

Is it not, then, the fact, I said, which we allowed 
before, that the person who is master of our soul is 
also master of our body ? 

Certainly, he replied. 

Whereas one who is master of our body is by no 
means necessarily master of our soul ? 
No, he said. 

And a person who can exclude you from the favour 
of God, and from that which is the privilege, and hope, 
and happiness of Christians, the share in the kingdom 
of Christ, such a person is master of your soul. 

It must be so, he said. 

And he, then, who can inflict expulsion from 
heaven, and this upon all individuals of all nations, is 
Lord and Master of all nations, of their bodies as of 
their souls ; in one word, of the whole world ? 

It is so, he said. 

The bishop of Rome, then, by his own declaration, 
is Lord and Master of the whole world. And if 
Almighty God has indeed given to him any such 
powers as he claims, we are his rightful subjects; and 
he is our rightful sovereign. And in refusing to obey 
him we are committing an act of rebellion, not only 
against him, but against God, from whom his power 
is said to be derived. 

He assented. 

And by the principles which wehave before laid down, 
and which are principles of the Catholic Church, it 
wouldnot be good for us as individuals, however we may 
think his acts or his doctrines erroneous, to do more 
than protest against them. We ought not to deny or 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSLTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 381 

resist his authority in anything, except where we have 
a positive assurance and command from God himself, 
requiring us to act in opposition to his appointed 
minister. 

Such, he said, were the principles you laid down. 

But God, I said, has also told us not to expect any 
other Gospel, any fresh revelation ; therefore not to 
listen to any message, however supported hy miracles, 
which should come forward to cancel the appointment, 
which he has made already, of his ministers ; or to 
unsettle the foundation of the Church, which he has 
built upon a rock, and with which he has declared that 
he will abide u even to the end of the world." 

This was, indeed, stated by you. 

Therefore, I continued, if this be so, we cannot 
learn, or hope to learn, what is true, except from the 
mouth of ministers whom God has already commis- 
sioned ; and if these be only servants and officers, as 
it were, of the bishop of Rome, it is from him alone 
that we can receive instruction. If he errs, no one can 
condemn his errors but himself. If he falls into sin, 
may man even doubt if it be sin, if he denies it? 

It is so, said the Brahmin. 

And from all this it follows, I continued, that every 
bishop of Rome is not only absolute lord and master 
of the whole world, but it is impossible either that he 
should be dethroned, or corrected, or checked by any 
human arm ; and he has power, so far as man is con- 
cerned, to decree that right is wrong, and wrong is 
right ; that true is false, and false is true ; and there 
is no tribunal upon earth to which we can appeal 
beyond him. 

Clearly so, he said. 

Therefore, I said, you may now see why any ques- 
tion about doctrinal corruptions, even though you read 
them for yourself, most palpably to your own eye, 
denounced by God himself in the Scriptures, could 



382 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



not be sufficient to save you from falling under the 
dominion of the bishop of Rome. For the Scriptures, 
we allow, are in the hands of the Church, and the in- 
terpretation of them ; and if the Pope be the head of 
the Church, armed, as he must be, by God, with ex- 
traordinary powers and gifts of his Holy Spirit, he 
must be far more able to interpret them rightly than 
any individual. Scripture therefore, however plain, is 
no security to a well-instructed mind against the errors 
of Popery, unless he has also some other safeguard. 
However startled such a mind may be by unscriptural 
or even immoral teaching, he will, if he be humble, 
pious, and reasonable, be inclined to distrust himself. 
He will dread, at any rate, confronting and despising 
such an authority as the supposed representative of 
God upon earth. He will say that his first duty is to 
acknowledge allegiance to his supposed lawful head, 
to place himself in communion with the supposed true 
and one society of Christ's faithful followers, united in 
obedience to their so-called appointed lord, the bishop 
of Rome. And afterwards, when this duty has been 
discharged, and he is now placed, as he hopes, upon 
safe ground, then he may think it right to endeavour 
humbly and loyally to procure the redress of what he 
may deem a grievance, and the reformation of what 
seems to him an error. Such, I think, were principles 
which we before arrived at ; and which, it seemed, could 
not be abandoned without running sooner or later into 
the extreme of self-will, every individual presuming to 
judge and act for himself, and thus inevitably tending 
to the destruction both of truth and of society. 
The Brahmin assented. 

The first and last question, then, which you will 
have to answer when you are brought into contact, as 
one day you must be, with the Romish controversy, is 
that of the papal supremacy ; and you must ascertain 
for yourself what is the foundation of the claim which 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 383 



the bishop of Rome makes to be head of the Church. 
And you will find it depend entirely on the assump- 
tion that the Church itself in apostolic times was 
founded, not on twelve Apostles, but on one, St. Peter ; 
and on St. Peter, not merely as an individual, (for this 
we all mav read, that he was hishlv honoured bv our 
blessed Lord, and was the great instrument of the 
conversion of his brethren, the Jews, as St. Paul was 
of the heathen,) but as bishop of Rome ; so that 
whoever possessed the same office should claim the 
same prerogatives. When I tell you that the name 
of the bishop of Rome does not occur in Scrip:ure; 
and that in the earliest ages all bishops, as far as their 
episcopal authority was concerned, were considered, 
equal ; and that the bishop of Rome neither claimed 
nor exercised any jurisdiction over them, you will 
wonder how such an exorbitant demand was permitted 
to grow up : but you will not wonder that, having 
grown up, it should have run into every kind of abuse, 
until cur forefathers in England, and others in other 
countries, shook off the yoke ; and we in England 
especially returned back upon the Bible, and on the 
records of apostolical practice, and by them are ready 
to prove that the bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction 
in any territory save his own. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, how am I to satisfy 
myself that what you now tell me of the injustice of 
these claims is borne out by reference to history, to 
which I have not access? Can you give me any argu- 
ment against them under my own eye ? 

I am unwilling, I replied, to venture on anything 
of the kind; for in deserting the sure and safe ground 
of historical testimony to the practice of the CathoFic 
Church, I run the risk of appealing to fallible opinions 
of my own. as well as in you, and of leading you to rest 
on your own private judgment, instead of external tes- 
timony and lawful authurity. And it was precisely by 



384 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII, 



doing that which you now wish me to do that the 
usurpation of the papacy itself grew up, and that some 
nations in Europe, who with us emancipated them- 
selves, and w T ith themselves the Gospel of Christ, and 
the Church, and the souls of men from the chains of 
Rome, nevertheless ran into grievous errors, and have 
ended at last in a state almost as evil as that of Rome ; 
it may be, even worse. In England our indignation at 
the Romish corruptions, and our just resentment of 
her usurpation, did not lead' us to forget, that though 
the absolute rule of one bishop was repugnant to the 
ordinances of God, and destructive to mankind, the 
rule of the Catholic Church was Lot therefore to be 
confounded with it, and shaken off ; and I could not 
depart from this salutary and needful rule of deciding 
all such questions by Catholic authority, unless I 
abandoned my position as her minister and servant. 

And yet you tell me that it will occupy a long time 
to search out the facts on which I may build my 
judgment, said the Brahmin. 

There are many books, I said, which will give you 
a short summary of the principal points, collected 
from ancient writings. And if you will promise to 
read them, and not confound the confirmation of 
Catholic testimony by human reason with a primary 
appeal to reason, that is, to our individual judgment 
on the expediency and fitness of arrangements sup- 
posed to be made by Almighty God, I will venture to 
make now a few remarks to you, principally to point 
out the difference between the Romish and the 
Catholic doctrine considered simply as evidencing a 
commission from God. 

The Brahmin prepared himself to listen. 

I would first, then, I continued, ask you to observe, 
whether the arguments which you will hear from 
Romanists on the subject of the Popish supremacy, as 
on most other of their peculiar corruptions, are not of 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AXD THE CHURCH. 3S5 



the very nature which I have just deprecated ; or, to 
use a word with which you will become more familiar 
in proportion as you know more of European literature, 
rationalistic ; that is, founded on appeals to our own 
private notions as individuals, as to what is expedient 
and good. They will tell you, not that Scripture and 
Catholic antiquity insist on such a form of government 
as a universal monarchy in the Church, but that such 
a form is most likely to preserve unity, and the purity 
of the faith, and the security of Christians against the 
attacks of enemies ; and that therefore it must be the 
one appointed by Gud himself, and to be followed by 
us. Alas ! if this argument were sound, how many 
things, which we know to be sanctioned by God, must 
we reject at once, because to us they do not seem the best 
means to answer what we imagine to be the best ends ! 
What weak and ignorant human being would have 
made a world, and permitted it to fall into ruin ? Or 
given laws to his creation, and allowed them to be 
violated ; or threatened to punish the wicked, and yet 
so often postpone the punishment ; or, being omnipo- 
tent and ail-wise, wuuld employ long and circuitous 
means to accomplish purposes which a word might 
have effected ; or, wishing our happiness, would have 
placed us here so exposed to misery ; or, desiring that 
we should spend our lives in lovmg and serving him, 
would have shut us out, as it were, from his presence ? 
And yet all these things we know to exist ; and so long 
as we believe that God is dwelling above us, and that 
he is the Maker of the world, and the Lord of all 
things, so long we must believe that these things are 
parts of some wise dispeusation of his goodness. But 
into this we will not enter. Let me rather ask whether 
such a mode of reasoning is like a minister of God, 
charged with a precise message from Him, acting 
under a system of rule and in a society established by 
Him, in which man, and man's reason, and man's will 

PART I. 2 L 



386 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



are to be nothing, and God is to be all in all ? Is it 
like the conduct of a man who distrusts himself, who 
knows his own ignorance, who feels himself weak, and 
wishes himself to be bound by laws and rules, and 
to conform to precedents, and not trespass on authori- 
ties? 

I think not, said the Brahmin. Before this, you 
have urged the same argument in behalf of your own 
Church, which you say does exhibit this deference to 
primitive antiquity, and this distrust of individual 
reasoning. 

I did, I replied. In these days it can scarcely be 
urged too often. Will you attend to another point ? 
Willingly, he replied. 

We have seen, I said, that there are several matters 
of Church discipline, which are not expressly declared 
in the Bible, but are rather left to be ascertained, first 
from the practice and teaching of the Church, and then 
to be confirmed incidentally by Scripture, and inci- 
dentally only. 

I remember, he said, several which you mentioned : 
such as the Baptism of Infants, the mode of consecrat- 
ing the Lord's Supper, the appointment of the 
Sabbath. 

It would therefore, I said, not be surprising if others 
were omitted to be directly taught in Scripture. And 
thus the Romish Church may shelter herself under our 
own principle, against the charge of being unable to 
prove her claims from Scripture. 

Yes, said the Brahmin ; but I understood from you 
that in those other cases you still had considerable 
secondary proofs from Scripture, and also that the 
evidence of the teaching of the Catholic Church on 
them was perfectly decisive and clear. 

It is so, I replied ; and this is one essential differ- 
ence between the proof given to the Romish claims and 
those given to other matters of Church government and 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 387 



discipline, not primarily ascertainable, perhaps, from 
Scripture ; but there is still another. 

And what is that? said the Brahmin. 

The Romish bishop, I said, makes communion with 
himself, and obedience to himself, and acknowledg- 
ment of his supreme power a condition of salvation. 
Every one who is cut off from the first, or refuses 
the other, is excluded by him from heaven. But we 
have seen what care has been taken by Almighty God, 
by the confession of the Romish church itself, to 
define and limit those articles of belief, without receiv- 
ing which we cannot be saved ; and those he has sup- 
plied to us in the Creed. Now in the Creed there is 
no mention whatever of the bishop of Rome ; and in 
order to avoid this difficulty, which they feel to be 
very great, it has been known that in some cases, by 
Romanists, the word " Roman" has been interpolated 
into the Creed, as an essential epithet of the Church 
which we are to believe in, and are to obey ; and which 
they assert possesses, under God, the supreme rule over 
us as Christians here upon earth. And with the same 
view the Romish communion has endeavoured to assume 
to themselves exclusively the titles of Catholic, Apo- 
stolic, and One. So that when Christians repeat in the 
Creed, " I believe in one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic 
Church," they may be deceived into the notion that 
by these words is meant the single church of Rome ; 
whereas the titles are equally applicable to all Christian 
communities, which have derived their authority from 
the body of the Apostles, from them inherit their doc- 
trines, and live together in mutual amity and love as 
one body, having " many members, but one spirit." 
Now this is in itself suspicious. Because an authority 
to tamper with the Creed as the prescribed terms of sal- 
vation, either by adding to it, or interpreting it falsely, 
virtually supersedes it ; and thus all the pains which 
have evidently been taken to fix and preserve one 

2 l 2 



388 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [cHAP. XIII. 



body of truth in the world become null and void. It 
is like a general who should construct a fortress with 
every possible precaution to prevent access, except by 
one gate, and should then leave open another close at 
its side. And thus when the Roman Catholic tells 
you that the unity of the Christian faith can only be 
preserved by submission to the bishop of Rome, ask 
him if submission to that bishop be essential to sal- 
vation ; and when he answers, Yes, remind him that 
by such a declaration he at once destroys the very 
unity which he proposes to guard. He introduces a 
new faith, and not only that, but a power of introduc- 
ing other new faiths, as often as it pleases the bishop 
of Rome to propound some new doctrine, and under 
pain of excommunication to require that all men 
should receive it. 

And yet, said the Brahmin, you yourself allow that 
belief in the Church is an article of faith necessary to 
salvation, and contained in the Creed. Why may 
not this be a brief designation of the Romish 
Church ? 

Because, I said, the word Church in this its largest 
sense includes all Christians whatever, who were 
admitted to the privileges of the Gospel through the 
medium of any of the Apostles. It included all the 
Gentiles who were converted by St. Paul. It could 
not therefore be limited to only one branch — the 
Romish Church. The Church existed before any 
branch of it was established at Rome. If I leave 
property to my children, shall one of my grandchildren 
rise up, and say that because he is a child, therefore 
he is to inherit the whole? And this, I said, will 
bring us to a third consideration. 

What is that ? asked the Brahmin. 

One, I think, which must have suggested itself to 
you from the beginning, For when an individual or 
a body comes forward, making a claim for exorbitant 



CH.\P. XIII.] AFOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 339 

power, this in itself begets suspicion ; and the greater 
the power, the more evidence we require that it is 
really given. And this evidence cannot be valid, 
unless it comes from disinterested parties. For in- 
stance, if a son laid claim to an estate, which he 
declared had been left to him by a dying father, to the 
exclusion of all other relatives, the children of this 
son would not be considered very eligible witnesses 
to produce, because they are evidently interested in 
this disposal of the property. Now the Romish 
Church by its very nature precludes the possibility of 
her producing in her own favour any but interested 
witnesses. She has none but her own children to 
bring forward, who by her own statements have de- 
rived all their knowledge from her, who are dependent 
on her for their daily bread, who are pledged to assent 
to everything that she professes, who dare not utter a 
word in opposition to her, under the penalty of exclu- 
sion from salvation, and whom, therefore, any court 
of justice would prohibit from giving evidence, just 
as our English law will not admit a wife to be a wit- 
ness in the trial of her husband. And observe, I 
said, how far this extends. For on the same princi- 
ple all decrees and decisions whatever of the Romish 
Church are incapable of being adequately attested. 

In what way ? asked the Brahmin. 

Because, I said, though the bishop of Rome assem- 
bled a million of Christian bishops, and they all con- 
curred in declaring any doctrines, still, if all those 
bishops were Romanists, and as such were previously 
pledged to abide by the decrees of the Romish bishops, 
their decisions would neither be a representation of 
the distinct independent voices of separate Churches, 
which gives the value of Catholic testimony to Catho- 
lic facts ; nor would it be valuable as an expression 
of opinion, for nothing gives weight to this but the 
independence of the parties, who thus, under a variety 

2 l 3 



390 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



of circumstances, agree in fundamental maxims. 
They would be mere echoes of the one voice of the 
bishop of Rome; the same individual appearing and 
reappearing in a variety of shapes. Would you be 
satisfied to bring into a court of justice, in order to 
prove a fact, one man dressed up to represent a 
hundred, or a hundred so bound together as to repeat 
only the declaration of one? And yet such- is the 
testimony to which Romanism is reduced, both for the 
support of her claims, and for the confirmation of all 
her peculiar doctrines. Is it, I ask, such testimony 
as befits a messenger from God ? And if it be 
admitted, is not the real foundation of the faith 
destroyed, and every individual left open ultimately 
to make his own faith, and to follow his own judg- 
ment ? Shall 1 mention some other points, which 
seem to deserve attention? 

The Brahmin bowed his assent. 

We observed, I said, before, that it is part of the 
discipline of Almighty God to place us in positions, 
where we might exercise our reasoning faculties, and 
that, too, under difficulties and trials. If you would 
strengthen and develope the mind of a child, you 
must surround it with a certain degree of doubt, place 
before it contending arguments, involve the truth in 
something of obscurity ; and thus accustom it to 
inquire, examine, balance, compare, and draw his in- 
ferences from bare probabilities, and often to act in 
faith even when probabilities are strong against him. 
The system of the world is constructed, it would 
seem, with this view, not of giving us knowledge, but 
of encouraging and disciplining the faculties by which 
knowledge is to be attained. And in the same man- 
ner the Christian dispensation is carefully enveloped in 
questions, which are all more or less exposed to cavil. 
For instance, we have no one precise universal creed, 
but several, which put together present slight discre- 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 391 

pancies, and general agreement ; and in these slight 
discrepancies is opened the door to doubts. Again, 
we have four accounts of our blessed Lord's life, 
all slightly varying, and in 'this way exposed to 
cavil. So the Bible itself is not free from difficulties 
of texts, and discrepancies in interpretation of words, 
and in translations. So our religious duties are not 
pointed out so much by one fixed law as by two, each 
warning us against a particular error and excess, and 
leaving us to find our path between them, not without 
anxiety and perplexity. So all the doctrines of 
Christianity are, as I have said before, binary ; that 
is, made up of two great truths, between which it is 
hard to steer, of which in the minds of common men 
one is perpetually struggling to swallow up the other ; 
but which sound minds, conformably to true Catholic 
principles, retain and guard ; together, yet not one, 
distinct, yet not separated : and so placing themselves 
constantly in a position of some perplexity and much 
thoughtfulness. Nothing is farther from the consti- 
tution of the world, or the constitution of the human 
mind, than a clear fixed line, either of belief or action, 
so marked out that no room is left for the exercise of 
deliberation, of dutifulness, of presence of mind, of 
readiness of judgment, of that bold but trustful spirit 
which almost seems the perfection of our nature, when 
our boldness arises from our consciousness that we 
are acting under law, and our trustfulness from the 
necessity of throwing our own weakness and blindness 
for protection under a higher power. Now as the 
professed object of Popery is to introduce a strict 
unity into the Church as a society, and to exclude all 
contending claims of allegiance, so it must pretend 
also to procure strict unity in doctrine ; and a unity 
far beyond that which is either sanctioned by our Lord, 
or necessary to the constitution of the Church, or pos- 
sible in the constitution of man. She is not content 



392 



CONSTITUTION OF THE 



[chap. XIII 



with the duty assigned by Almighty God to the 
Church, of witnessing historically to the one creed and 
doctrine received from the Apostles, which witness 
necessarily requires that there should be many inde- 
pendent voices, — she wishes beyond this to remove all 
doubts and questions which may arise in a Christian's 
mind, to satisfy every curious inquiry, and to lay down 
upon each a positive answer, to which all men shall 
subscribe. From this arises the claim of infallibility, 
which she necessarily couples with her claim to 
supremacy; and having once established herself as 
the absolute lord of the Church and of the faith, by 
shutting out the independent testimony of other distinct 
churches, and having thus lost sight of her true func- 
tion of a witness, and being unable, indeed, to support 
it in her single person, she has assumed a much 
higher, but an unchristian prerogative, of sitting as an 
oracle among men, to whose voice ail may seek in all 
their difficulties. 

I comprehend you, said the Brahmin. 
And this prerogative, she will tell you, is necessary ; 
she will point to the dissensions which exist in the 
world on the subject of religion, and especially among 
those who have shaken off her yoke ; and she will 
triumphantly ask how man can exist without some 
infallible guide upon earth. And your answer must 
be, that even though adherence to Catholic and apo- 
stolical practice were to be followed by the outbreak of 
a thousand heresies, this fear is not to deter us from 
doing simply what God has commanded — that the 
absence of divisions is so far from being a mark of 
the preaching of the true Church, that they are espe- 
cially prophesied of ; that the plan proposed by Rome 
does not extinguish heresies, but only increases and 
suppresses them ; keeping the disease alive in a far 
more fearful form than if it were allowed to break 
out and rage unconcealed. For it opens a licence to 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 393 

the wildest curiosity ; and as it multiplies decisions 
upon every question, it renders the preservation of 
one uniform body of truth more difficult ; and being 
unable to produce real unanimity, it is content with 
exacting an outward obedience, and leaving the fan- 
cies of individuals to wander at will under cover of it; 
and where no such fancies are presumptuously in- 
dulged, it ends in leaving the whole of human belief and 
of divine doctrine unsettled and undefined, and sums 
it all up in one duty, obedience to the Romish power. 
Thus in the effort to escape from the doubts and per- 
plexities necessarily attached to our condition upon 
earth, she falls into others still greater ; others which 
do not salutarily exercise a humble, thoughtful, reason- 
ing mind, nor prove and strengthen those powers of 
intellect which God has given us to be trained in 
dutiful submission to his defined law. 

There is therefore, strictly speaking, neither free- 
dom of thought in the Romish Church, nor healthy 
confinement of thought, nor exercise of the understand- 
ing, nor trial of faith. Thought is not free, for it is 
bound to subscribe not merely, as in the Catholic 
Church, to the definite body of doctrine which has 
been received from the Apostles, but to whatever, at 
any time,. under any circumstances, the bishop of 
Rome may have decreed or may still decree. It is 
not healthily confined ; for Popery demanding so 
much, which cannot be given from the heart, is 
obliged to content itself with the acquiescence of the 
lips, and to leave the mind really without control. 
The understanding is not exercised, because every 
answer is given authoritatively, and to be received im- 
plicitly. And the faith is not tried ; for where there 
is no doubt there is no difficulty, and where there is 
no difficulty there is no faith. 

And I have gone, I said, more at length into this 
point, because it is the most captivating to minds 



394 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



earnestly searching for the truth. And I ask you only, 
whether the offer which Popery thus makes you of an 
infallible guidance vested in a human being like your- 
self, capable of answering all your questions, and re- 
moving all your difficulties, without any other demand 
on you but that of implicit acquiescence in all its de- 
crees—whether this offer sounds to you like the voice 
of a messenger from God ? Is such the dealing of God 
in the natural world ? Does he give us this unlimited 
oracular power in any other case ? Does he not 
rather give us a small but certain amount of know- 
ledge, such as the Church gives us in the creeds ; and 
demanding our absolute reception of this, allow us 
beyond this to reason and examine with freedom for 
ourselves — assisting, and warning, and encouraging 
us, as a parent would stand over the child, but not super- 
seding our exertions by answering every question for 
us himself? And I ask you also, if the assumption 
of such a power be not something startling in itself — 
which we could not receive upon the declaration of an 
interested individual, such as the bishop of Rome 
must be, however supported by multitudes of depend- 
ents, who by his own statement are only parts of 
himself; which would require to be guaranteed in the 
strongest and most unequivocal manner by Almighty 
God; and of which the only satisfactory guarantee 
recognised by God must be the accordance of many 
witnesses — many witnesses, which it is impossible to 
obtain, since all are by the Popish supremacy merged 
to repeat it again, in the authority of the one bishop 
of Rome. 

The Brahmin assented. 

Then place, I said, on the other side the offer of 
the Catholic Church, as it exists in England. • She 
also promises to be your guide, and an infallible guide 
so long as you are content to know only what God 
has required that you should know in order to be 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 395 

saved. But her infallibility she does not rest on her 
own individual prerogative, but on the faithful witness 
of many branches of the Church, wholly independent 
of herself, to the teaching of the Apostles. Beyond 
this she will not presume to do more than advise, and 
teach, humbly yet affectionately, from the Scripture, to 
the best of her knowledge and power. And she will 
not suffer you either to tempt her by investing her 
with too much command over you, nor to tempt your- 
self by abandoning the use of your own legitimate 
reasoning faculties, and throwing yourself helplessly 
on her arm. Is this, 'I ask, like a minister of that 
God who would rear us all to perfection through our 
own efforts and struggles, and who knows the heart of 
man, that it cannot safely be trusted with any unlimited 
authority ? 
It is, he said. 

Think again, I said, whether it be the practice of 
Almighty God (if we may so dare to speak) to hazard, 
as it were, his own truth, and the salvation of man, 
upon a single plank. Far be it indeed from us to 
deny that such might be his will in the case of the 
Church, though we have little experience of such a 
system in other parts of his creation. But the Romanist 
cannot maintain his theory by history, and it must 
ultimately rest, both in his own mind and in yours, 
upon some notion of expediency. He dreams of a 
plan and system, w T hich he thinks likely to secure his 
end, and then he endeavours to twist, and even to 
falsify the records of antiquity, to borrow from it some 
show of reality ; and therefore he may be met here on 
his own ground. God indeed, in the bosom of his 
Church, does work one perpetual miracle, the inspira- 
tion of his Holy Spirit, which we see not, but only 
feel ; or rather seldom feel, but only trace it by its 
effects in the improvement of our hearts, contrary to 
all their natural workings. But even this great miracle, 



396 



CONSTITUTION" OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



though intended for the very purpose of overcoming 
our corrupt natures, and of making us wholly new 
creatures, is nevertheless not carried on so as to 
supersede the original laws and operations of our 
evil hearts, except by slow degrees. It does not 
render unnecessary external aids of education and 
discipline ; rather it is so embodied, as it were, and 
infused into us through these, that it is hard to draw 
the line between them. Outward ordinances are the 
body, and the Holy Spirit is the soul of Christianity; 
and we can no more separate them from each other 
than we can separate the body and soul of the indi- 
vidual man. 

And to what purpose, asked the Brahmin, would 
you apply this fact ? 

I wished to guard, I replied, from misconception 
the principle which I was about to suggest : that in 
constructing the machinery of the Church, Almighty 
God, we might naturally suppose, as from history we 
believe, to be the fact, would provide an external 
arrangement to guard the truth, and to save it from 
the corruption or thoughtlessness of men, as well as an 
internal miracle in the constant superintending care of 
his own Holy Spirit. And such a machine would be 
wholly wanting if the whole church were built on the 
foundation of one individual man ; for into such the 
authority of the Pope or Bishop of Rome must ulti- 
mately be resolved. How is it that man is saved 
from the evils of his own weakness and sins in the 
natural world ? Is it not, I said, by combination, by 
plurality, by the help of independent beings not 
affected by his own failings, by drawing off to supply 
his own defects from the superfluities of others, by 
joining forces, by obtaining wisdom through a mul- 
titude of counsellors ? Does man, I said, ever live, — 
can he come into existence except in a state of society, 
both produced and preserved by the association of other 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 397 



human beings ? What is the foundation of a family 
but a plurality of persons in the husband and the wife ? 
What the foundation of a state but a distribution of 
powers and prerogatives among many classes ? What 
the origin of science but the accumulation of many 
scattered streams of knowledge springing from sepa- 
rate heads ? What the safeguard of our virtues but 
the presence and discipline of men not affected with 
our own infirmities, and therefore able to elevate our 
minds to a level beyond our own, and to chasten us 
as our superiors? And has not Almighty God been 
pleased in his Church also to bestow his greatest bless- 
ings upon incorporation? He sent out his disciples 
at the first two and two. 1 When he gave power to 
his Apostles, and authority over all devils, and to cure 
diseases, " he first called them all together." 2 It was 
when the disciples were assembled that he " breathed 
on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 5 ' 3 It 
was when " they were all with one accord in one 
place," that the same Holy Spirit descended on them, to 
give them utterance of all languages. 4 And again 
there is a remarkable passage, which you will find 
when you read the Gospel of St. Matthew : 5 " Yerily I 
say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall 
be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven observe that the 
promise is made to them collectively. And our Lord 
proceeds immediately, as if for the very purpose of 
enforcing this fact : " Again I say unto you, That if 
two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything 
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
Father which is in heaven. For where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
midst of them." All these are facts which you will 



1 Luke x. 1. 2 Luke ix. 1. 

4 Actsii. 1. 

PART I. 



3 John xx. 22. 
5 xviii. IS. 

2 M 



398 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



observe for yourself, as you read the Scriptures ; if, as 
desiring from your heart to know the truth, you read 
them honestly and carefully. 

By God's blessing, said the Brahmin, 1 will do so. 

And when you followed the history of the Church 
still further, I continued, you would find still that in 
proportion to its right incorporation — that is, to its 
union of many distinct members in one society, still pre- 
serving their distinctness — has been its purity and its 
power ; and whenever this distinctness was lost, and 
all was reduced to some one individual, then Christian 
truths and Christian strength have been lost also. Shall 
I repeat to you the account of the Church given by 
St. Paul himself ? and then you shall judge which is 
most agreeable both to Scripture and to reason — the 
constitution of Popery under one absolute monarch, 
absorbing all powers in himself, or the constitution 
of the Catholic Church, preserving the unitv of the 
branches by affectionate intercommunion with each 
other, in one spirit and one faith, but not merging all 
the members in one. "For as the body," says St. 
Paul, " is one, and hath many members, and all the 
members of that one body, being many, are one body, 
so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized 
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether 
we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink 
into one spirit: for the body is not one member, but 
many. . . - If the whole body were an eye, where were 
the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were 
the smelling? But now hath God set the members 
every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. 
And if they were all one member, where were the body ? 
But now are they many members, yet but one body." 

And this individual unity, I continued, is so repu- 
diated in Scripture, that it even seems to be set as a 



1 1 Cor. xii. 12. 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 399 



peculiar mark upon a power called Antichrist, which 
the Apostles declared would one day rise up in the 
Church. And shall I tell you, I continued, why I 
would wish you to dwell on this point, for it has a 
peculiar reference to yourself? 
If you please, he replied. 

Though, I said, I am not willing to speak ab- 
stractedly and philosophically, when the plain simple 
truths of Christ's Gospel are rather to be laid before 
you, and your conscience is to be awakened to the 
clanger of rejecting them, yet, if any difficulty in 
human reason will perplex you, it ought to be removed ; 
and the great difficulty which, taught as you have been, 
you will have to overcome, is one connected with this 
principle which is here laid down by St. Paul : that 
perfection consists not in unity only, as we poor mor- 
tals are accustomed to imagine when w T e follow our 
own understanding only. Your whole system is built 
on unity ; for I do not charge you with believing the 
idle tales and superstitions with which the com- 
mou people have overlaid the purer and more abstract 
faith which is found in your Yedas; and when we 
come to speak hereafter of the peculiar doctrines of 
the Gospel, this will be the point of distinction between 
us. You will contend for unity, and we as Catholic 
Christians will contend for unity also, but for such a 
unity as does not destroy the distinctness of parts and 
members. I will not speak of this more at present. 
Perhaps, left as it is, in a form thus abstract, it may 
fix itself the better in the memory, as a question which 
we still have to solve. 

I will remember it, said the Brahmin ; but I must 
remind you now, that you have not yet explained to me 
clearly what you consider to be the true constitution 
of the Church, as contrasted with that of Popery. 
You have spoken much of unity ; but how do you 

2 m 2 



400 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



reconcile it with this independence of the distinct por- 
tions of it ? 

I thought, I replied, that you might have gathered 
a general view of it from the many remarks which 
have been made on it already. But perhaps I may 
be able to make it clearer. When the Apostles were 
left by our Lord after his ascension into heaven, they 
formed, as it were, the nucleus or rather the seed of the 
Church, from which the Church was to spring, tilled 
all of it with the Holy Spirit, and forming one mys- 
terious body, united with our blessed Lord. They 
went forth after a time severally into all lands, preach- 
ing, and baptizing, and establishing societies or 
churches. Each church they placed under one 
bishop, as its head and monarch ; these bishops pos- 
sessed each in their own dioceses or districts the chief 
power ; but this power, so likely to be abused by them as 
individuals, was checked and guarded by the presence 
of many other bishops round them, each in his own 
diocese, communicating with each other constantly, and 
recognising one common faith and one common duty, 
and one Supreme Head, even Jesus Christ in heaven, 
and one Holy Spirit, pervading all their hearts alike. 
In this consisted their unity. And the foundation of 
that unity was the apostolical body, from which they 
derived their doctrine in the Creeds and Holy Scrip- 
tures, and the derivation of the Holy Spirit through the 
sacraments, and the unity of their government through 
the regular succession of their appointed ministers. By 
degrees, from the necessity of acting in concert, and 
from the natural circumstances of localities and origin, 
these several bishops were gathered for certain pur- 
poses into bodies, and these bodies became more and 
more concentred under particular bishops, as arch- 
bishops and patriarchs, until at last, in a great part of 
Europe, one bishop, the bishop of Rome, in defiance of 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 401 



the protests of the ancient Church, and the resistance 
of states and people, usurped to himself a vast exclusive 
power, which swallowed up first the authority of all 
other bishops, then the rights of kings, then the in- 
dependence and wealth of nations; and then, being 
thoroughly corrupted with the extent of his own 
usurpation, compelled England and some other coun- 
tries to protest against it as uncatholic and unscrip- 
tural, and to return to their ancient independence ; or 
rather, I should say, not to return, for practically in 
England that independence had never been formally 
lost, but to reassert it more solemnly and effectually, 
and to exclude the bishop of Rome from any inter- 
ference with them. 

And how, said the Brahmin, did you accomplish 
this? 

By a merciful act of Providence, I said, the king 
of England at that time was made an instrument for 
effecting this great purpose. He was not a holy 
and good man, but men neither holy nor good are 
employed by God to work his ends. He threw off 
the subjection to the bishop of Rome, in the same 
manner as many of his predecessors before had pro- 
tested against it, in order to restore the independence 
of his kingdom, which virtually lay under subjection 
to a foreign power, so long as the claims of the Pope 
were tolerated; because, as we have said before, the 
person who possesses the souls of a people, possesses 
also their bodies, and thus could at any time raise a 
rebellion against the lawful monarch — a practice with 
which the history of Popery is full. He shook it off, 
as the rulers of any country w r ould shake off the inter- 
ference of a foreign potentate with their internal 
government. And if indeed kingdoms and govern- 
ments are the appointment of God, and he has divided 
the bounds of the nations, and appointed that men 
should be distributed under different heads into dif- 

2m 3 



402 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



ferent regions, each nation living under its own ruler, 
and preserving its distinctness, it must be also the ap- 
pointment of God that his Church should be distribu- 
ted in the same way, upon the same foundations ; and 
this has always been its practice. It has, as I have said 
before, gathered itself in bodies under civil rulers ; 
and, together with these civil rulers, it is charged in 
each country with the ofEce of educating, and govern- 
ing, and blessing the people — subject, as we have 
seen, in all temporal matters to the civil ruler as to 
a constituted minister of God ; independent of it, 
and demanding its obedience in all those spiritual 
things committed by God to itself. And yet this 
distinction of its various portions in various kingdoms 
no way destroys its unity, so long as they all preserve 
the same faith, own the same Lord, and act together 
in the bonds of the same spirit of charity and love ; 
any more than the unity of the tree is destroyed by 
the distinctness of the boughs. Rather it increases 
it, comparatively with Popery. 

How can this be? said the Brahmin. 

Because, I answered, as the only principle of 
Romish unity is the external acknowledgment of one 
human individual as head, this unity is compatible, 
as we have seen, with great secret differences of opinion 
even on essential doctrines — secret they will be, but they 
may still exist. It is compatible also with great per- 
sonal antipathy and discord ; for there is nothing in 
the position or character of the bishop of Rome to 
exclude these feelings from his followers. It is not 
only compatible with, but it necessarily leads to civil 
discord : because it distracts the allegiance of the 
subject between two masters, his king and the Pope ; 
and that, not as in the true Catholic constitution of 
the Church, where also he has two masters, the king 
and his own national church, but where these two 
powers are so balanced and blended, like that of the 



CHAP. XIII.] ATOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 403 

husband and the wife in families, as to form together 
only one power. But in the Popish system he has two 
temporal masters, and two spiritual, both struggling 
for the whole power ; for when the Pope was strong 
enough, he claimed to be the temporal lord of kingdoms, 
and must be so in fact, if his spiritual claims are just. 
And unless the king claims also to have some interest 
in the spiritual welfare of his people, as a ruler placed 
over them by God, he will soon lose all respect in 
their eyes, and his kingdom will fall to pieces. And 
these temporal and spiritual powers will be engaged 
in perpetual conflict, such as has always prevailed, 
wherever Popery has been able to establish itself. And 
lastly, it is not only compatible with, but it leads prac- 
tically to a forgetfulness of the only real source and 
giver of Christian unity and love, even our blessed 
Lord himself. Remember, I said, that the Christian 
Church professes to have but one Lord and Master, 
Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven, and now 
sitteth on the right hand of God until he comes upon 
earth again to judge both the quick and the dead. He is 
the great corner-stone of the building of the Church : 
He is our righteousness, our peace, our strength, our 
good, our wisdom, our all. His glory is to be our 
only object, his name our only safeguard. And then 
think if it be a proof of being a minister of his, to 
erect a system in which practically, not merely by the 
faults of men, which must prevail in all systems, but 
by the essential working of the system itself, the mind 
is withdrawn from Christ, and fixed on man. 

And how does the claim of the Pope, said the 
Brahmin, tend to this ? 

In the first place, I answered, instead of reminding 
us every day, by the verv absence of a visible head 
upon earth, of our invisible head in heaven, it places 
before us a human being as his vicegerent, armed with 
the power of Christ, and almost superseding the neces- 
sity of appealing to Christ himself. Secondly, by 



404 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



representing our unity as consisting in obedience to 
this visible human head, it withdraws us from the 
recollection of Him who is really the centre of our 
unity : whereas no such effect is produced by the 
Catholic doctrine, making the whole body of the 
Apostles the foundation of the Church ; because the 
very sight of a number of men acting in coucert as 
our rulers necessarily implies and suggests some one, 
though absent being, by whom they are all guided. 
Thirdly, the placing of one human individual on the 
throne of the Church gives a sanction for a similar 
process to each man himself. When the Catholic 
Church teaches us, as she does, to venerate. the Apo- 
stles, and saints, and martyrs, who have gone before us 
to their rest, having glorified God by their deaths, and 
blessed us by the example- of their lives, there is no 
fear lest it should lead us to select any one of these 
human beings, to dwell exclusively on his merits, or 
on his relation to ourselves, and thus, by the natural 
process so common to our frail natures, to take to our- 
selves a single human being as the object of our affec- 
tions, and the ruler of our actions. There is no fear, 
I say, of this, because she bids us regard them collec- 
tively as a body, as individually weak and incompetent 
to any great purpose ; as deriving both individually 
and collectively their whole power and goodness from 
another source. That which can do nothing except 
in conjunction with others, in itself is comparatively 
worthless; and thus the Catholic principle not only 
reminds us daily of the insufficiency of man, but pre- 
vents us from fixing ourselves on man, and raises up 
our thoughts to God. It acts as when a traveller is 
crossing some frail ice or sinking moor, and he is 
obliged to tread hastily and not rest long on any single 
step, lest he should sink in. And man has a tendency 
to sink in wherever he rests ; that is, to concentrate his 
thoughts, and interests, and affections upon any one 
object which is often presented to him. And the only 



CHAP. XIII.] AFOSTOUC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 405 

object on which he can rest safely is Jesus Christ : 
but Jesus Christ is invisible, and in heaven, and raised 
far, far above him ; and his eyes too easily turn down 
to some being more on a level with himself ; and unless 
he be constantly warned against it, he will select some 
one human saint, and almost worship him, as God. 
Such has been the case in Popery ; and the worship of 
saints and angels, instead of the one true God, may 
mainly be attributed to this tendency, sanctioned 
and encouraged as it is by the principle of the popish 
supremacy. Am I wearying you, I said, with these 
remarks, or shall I proceed ? 

I beg, he said, you will proceed. 

Moreover as the object, I said, of thus placing a visible 
head on the throne of the Church is to rule and govern 
man, it is necessary to invest him with vast and super- 
human powers and privileges. And thus man, in the 
Romish system, is accustomed to regard man as a 
spiritual and almost deified sovereign; and such is 
the fearful language too common in the mouths of 
Romanists w r hen speaking of their Pope. And although 
the true Catholic Church does itself claim great and 
superhuman powers, yet as no individual who exer- 
cises them is placed supreme over the rest of his fellow- 
creatures, man here, even when exercising his highest 
and most awful functions, is always seen to have 
superiors above him; and those w T ho see him are 
reminded of the source from which all power flows. 
Every act of his power is accompanied with a sign of 
his weakness. Every Bishop, though sovereign in his 
own diocese, is confronted by other sovereigns all 
around him ; and where all are equal, all are men. 
And for the same reason, I said, namely, that the 
object of the papal supremacy is pow 7 er and govern- 
ment, whereas that of the Catholic Church is the 
witnessing to truth, it becomes necessary in the former 
to have recourse to all the arts and manoeuvres by 



406 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



which human beings, naturally rebellious against 
authority, are kept in subjection to their fellow-men ; 
and these arts are the more requisite, since the rule 
of an individual over the whole world must require so 
vast a machinery. And in these acts, God, the only 
power that can really rule the heart of man, is kept 
out of sight, and men learn to walk by sight, and not by 
faith ; and to trust in an arm of flesh, instead of the 
Spirit of God. And worse than this still : for the 
true Catholic Church, knowing that all things are in 
the hands of the Almighty, and that man has nothing 
to do, and nothing to answer for at the day of judgment 
but the setting forth the truth, in this life, when this 
has been done faithfully, retires content; consoling 
herself with the consciousness that her own duty has 
been discharged, whatever, be the result, and leaving 
the rest to Providence. And she has no temptation 
to deceive, or forge, or dress up false miracles, or utter 
lying prophecies, or to employ any evil means to 
reach what may seem a good end. And yet I know 
not how we can escape from the sad conviction that 
such artifices have been often practised by Popery, 
and will be practised again, as a necessary means of 
spreading and establishing her power. I pass over 
other means employed by her of setting subjects 
against their kings, and monarchs against monarchs, 
and spreading sedition, and rebellion, and even blood- 
shed and murder, schism and heresy, blasphemy and 
infidelity, among a nation, in order, in the chaos which 
ensues, to obtain an opening for her own dominion. 
Yet this she has done again and again. And in the 
same spirit, I continued, she will do, what is less 
openly evil, but secretly perhaps is scarcely less 
destructive to Christian goodness — she will endeavour 
to rule the minds of men, and to bind them to her by 
appealing to their feelings and imagination. Not con- 
tent with placing the truth simply and intelligibly 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 407 

before them, she will dress it up in flowery language, 
and exhibit it in gaudy forms, and disguise it in 
appearances more congenial to the tastes of mankind, 
and therefore more certainly approaching to evil. And 
rather than lose the control which she seeks to acquire 
over them, she will indulge them even in sinful imagina- 
tions—allow them, for instance, to picture the Almighty 
God in idols of wood and stone, and to bow down before 
them, in order, as she vainly thinks, to stimulate their 
devotion, and to heighten their love. And to prevent 
the human reason from rising up in opposition to her 
claims, she will close up from them the Book of Life, 
and suppress education, or divert it, where it cannot 
be suppressed, into channels from which nothing will 
spring of real wisdom and manly thought. Even 
the worship of God will be brought down from its 
simplicity and truth into a mixture of showy, fantastic 
ceremonies, where the eye will be so engaged, and the 
ear so soothed by unintelligible sounds, that religious 
worship will be like a spectacle at a theatre, and 
the poor will indeed frequent it, but frequent it as 
they do a show. Or if a better feeling lead them 
there, still it will be the object of the spiritual power 
to exhibit itself as wholly superior to its fellow-crea- 
tures, whom it proposes to rule; and for this pur- 
pose the interval will be widened both between God 
and his humbler creatures, and between those humbler 
creatures and their spiritual teachers, until the teachers 
are elevated into Gods, and the rest of mankind are 
sunk down far beneath the place assigned to them by 
our blessed Lord as parts of his body, of his flesh and of 
his bones. And then the vast space between God and 
man will be filled up, even by Christians, as it always 
has been filled up by unassisted human reason, with 
numerous intermediate gradations of spiritual beings, 
coming between them, and intercepting the sight of 
God from the eyes of man. 



408 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



And when this is done, the Brahmin asked, what 
will follow ? 

I have not finished yet, I said, the evil maxims and 
practices connected with this object of governing man, 
and overruling him even to good, instead of placing 
the good before him, and leaving it to the Spirit of God 
to impress it on his heart. 

When man, I proceeded, believes that it is his duty 
not merely to endeavour to make others good, but 
actually to make them so, and loses his reliance upon 
God in confidence in his own strength, and no longer 
regards God as really the all-present, all-pervading 
power on which everything depends, he will become 
impatient at opposition, and feel anger and resent- 
ment, instead of sorrow only, when those whom he 
endeavours to instruct refuse to listen ; and when 
appeals to the mind have failed, as they often will fail, 
and still the end is to be gained, then remain only 
appeals to the body, brute force, where reasoning has 
been useless. And men will disguise this vainlv 
under the name of mercy and discipline; but it is 
really persecution. Thus the Church of Rome has 
not shrunk from propagating, as she believes, the 
faith of Christ, and checking error, by blood, and by 
what, in the eye of God, cannot but be murder; and 
of those also who have rescued themselves from her, 
some indeed in former times have done the same, 
taught by the lessons in which she had brought them 
up, that truth might be defended by cruelty. But 
they sinned in the spirit of the system which they 
had left, not in that to which they returned : crueltv 
and persecution is no part of a Catholic system. It is 
of Popery. 

The Brahmin begged me to proceed. " 

I will, I said, if you bear in mind, throughout, our 
question whether such a system be like the conduct of 
a minister from God. This is our object. 



CHAP.Xin.] AFOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 409 



He promised that he would. 

Once more then, I said, that which prevents us 
from obtaining all the power which we seek over human 
minds, is ignorance of what passes within them. 
If we knew all their nature, and thoughts, and actions, 
we could govern them easily, just as we govern the 
movements of the material world when we are ac- 
quainted with its laws. Therefore, he who would be 
master of man must know the thoughts of man ; and 
therefore the system of Popery has made it not only a 
recommendation, but necessary, that all the secrets of 
her children's minds should be made known to her 
through the confessional. She requires all men to 
confess constantly to her priests. 

And is not confession good? said the Brahmin. 
And how can a spiritual father guide, console, and 
instruct, without knowing the heart? 

It is good, I said ; and the Scripture recommends 
it, and our own Church enjoins on all of us public and 
daily confession of our sinfulness, when we meet for 
the worship of God. And more than this, she wishes 
and encourages all whose conscience is afflicted, and 
who are really penitent, to come and seek counsel from 
their priest, 1 and to acknowledge their offences ; and 
it would be well were such encouragement more studi- 
ously enforced and attended to. But it is one thing to 
encourage the penitent to confess, and another to com- 
pel the impenitent — one thing to make a few confess, 
and another to make all. 

, And where is the evil, asked the Brahmin, of the 
latter ? 

You cannot, I said, compel this without some 
grievous threat ; and the threat which the Romish 
Church adopts, as she naturally must do, having no 
other so powerful, is exclusion from the Holy Com- 

l Office for the Visitation of the Sick. Exhortation to the 

Holy Communion, 
PART I. 2 N 



410 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



munion, by which means men are virtually cut off 
from the great means of nurturing their souls, and 
enjoying their highest privileges as Christians. And 
unless Almighty God had been pleased to appoint that 
such a punishment should follow on the refusal to 
confess to the priest, which He nowhere has done, to 
inflict it is to narrow the approach to the gates of 
heaven, and, as far as man can do so, to interpose 
between the all-merciful God and his creatures, and to 
prevent his grace from reaching them. It is to cut off 
the channels of God's greatest bounties. Sins indeed 
thus punished by those whom we consider to be the 
fit representatives of his servants, the Apostles, we may 
thus punish likewise, but none other. And if there be 
presumption in this threat of punishment on the refusal 
to confess, there must be equal presumption in the 
reward held out to those who comply ; and this reward 
is absolution or forgiveness of sins — a power which 
Almighty God did expressly give to his Apostles, in 
words which we have quoted more than once, and 
which is conferred on every minister of our Catholic 
Church at this day when he is ordained by his bishop. 
To them the bishop says, as our Lord said to his Apo- 
stles, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins 
ye remit, they are remitted ; and whose soever sins ye 
retain, they are retained." Think before we proceed 
what blasphemy is contained in such words, if they 
be not sanctioned by God himself ; and ask yourself, 
as I have suggested so often before, whether such 
awful words be not in themselves a proof that they 
who have used them for 1800 years, and cling to them 
at this day with reverence, and with more reverence 
and more joy in proportion to their fear of God, can 
be other than appointed ministers of God, charged, as 
they declare they are charged by him, to lead you into 
the way of salvation. And this power of forgiving 
sins is undoubtedly exercised by every priest when 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 411 

he performs the ceremony of baptism. ;< One baptism 
for the remission of sins," is an article in our creeds. 
It is announced also generally to all who truly re- 
pent and believe, every time we make our public 
confession of sins in the congregation in the Lord's 
house. And more particularly our Church requires 
that when a sick person has made a special confession 
of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with some 
weighty matter, the priest shall absolve him, if he 
humbly and heartily desire it, after this sort : " Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church 
to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe on 
him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences ; 
and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee 
from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 

The Brahmin seemed startled and astonished. 

I wonder not, I said, at your surprise. And I enter 
not now into the grounds and nature of this vast pri- 
vilege. It is sufficient that we claim and exercise it. 
And the Church of Rome claims it likewise. But not 
content with declaring it generally, and reserving the 
special application of it to moments like those of a 
death-bed, when the confession is likely to be most 
sincere, and the penitence most deep, she brings the 
absolution down to every individual, and applies it 
to almost every confession ; fur rarely is it denied. 
And she allows every priest to exercise this power ; or, 
rather, she compels him to do so, indiscriminately. 
For, to enter into the state of conscience of every indi- 
vidual, and to examine their repentance thoroughly, is 
impossible. And thus the confession is hurried over, 
and the absolution is pronounced hastily, and yet, as 
it is thought, efficaciously ; so that the conscience of 
the sinner is deadened by it instead of quickened, and 
sinful men learn to regard the ceremony as one which 
can be performed at any time in a few minutes, and 

2 n 2 



412 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



after which their soul will be as clean as it was before 
they ever committed sin. They rise up also from the 
confessional emboldened to commit new crimes, since 
the old have now been expiated, and the new may be 
expiated again at as easy a cost. And in this respect, 
in so many others, the Romanist is like the Dissenter. 
For Dissent also has an easy way of smoothing a troubled 
conscience, and enabling it to forget its sins, and to be- 
lieve that God has forgiven them. If such a man feels 
some sudden burst of remorse, and a momentary exalt- 
ation or warmth of affection to his God, this is taken 
as implying that God has visited him, however wicked, 
and has pardoned all his offences. And thus both in 
Popery and Dissent a licence is practically given to 
the worst crimes, and men become insensible to the 
danger and the guilt of sinning. Is this, I asked, like 
a minister of that God who, as he is a God of mercy, 
is also a God of justice ? Is it not to abuse and make 
light of the greatest prerogative with which he has 
endowed us ; a prerogative which, to our reason, none 
can exercise but God only ? And does not this abuse 
arise from the primary source of all the evils of Popery 
— its lust of power ; as this lust of power is essentially 
connected with its doctrine of the Papal supremacy ? 

In entering thus into the details of the Popish 
system I was afraid that the Brahmin would find a 
difficulty in following me. But, founded as his own 
system was on the same lust of power, it seemed 
desirable to trace out distinctly to him the conse- 
quences which would naturally ensue from it ; and I 
preferred leaving him to draw the parallel himself, 
without alluding too distinctly to the similar corrup- 
tions of his own religion, that he might insensibly be 
led to condemn the faults in others which he must 
afterwards acknowledge and condemn in himself. He 
seemed, however, to attend with interest; and as I 
spoke of the easy way in which remission of sins is 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 413 

obtained in Popery, he appeared to compare them in 
his own mind with the similar facility for absolution 
offered in his own system by little external acts, 
which the greatest sinner could perform. 

Shall I proceed, I said, still further ? 

He expressed his readiness to hear. 

Upon this theory then, I said, of confession and 
absolution is founded another grievous corruption, 
equally unlike the character of a faithful minister of 
God. It cannot be that men should be acquitted of 
their sins with a few words, without some punishment 
being inflicted on them. This would be, even for 
Popery, too great a laxity of indulgence. Forgiveness, 
indeed, necessarily implies a change of heart in the 
sinner ; and the change of heart is, in the Christian lan- 
guage, repentance. And repentance cannot take place 
without keen suffering — suffering of remorse, of shame, 
of fear ; nor without resolution of amendment, and sub- 
mission to all those acts of discipline and self-denial by 
which that amendment must be proved and perfected 
— discipline and self-denial the greater in proportion to 
the enormity of the sins. Without assurance of this, 
absolution ought not to be given ; for there is no 
reason to suppose that God will ratify such an un- 
conditional pardon in heaven. For when he gave us 
permission to forgive sins, he coupled it with the 
condition of repentance and faith in the sinner. 
Think, I said, whether he can -be a faithful minister 
of God, who sinks and forgets the only difficult part of 
his commission, and enforces only that which gives to 
himself power, and to others licence and indulgence. 
For it is hard to ascertain a real repentance. It is not 
to be proved by words — no, nor by tears — no, nor by 
isolated acts ; — but by a long consistent course of 
amendment and obedience. And in the confessional of 
Popery, to which every one is bound to come, this can- 
not be ascertained. And vet absolution must be given ; 

2 n 3 



414 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [cHAP. XUl, 



and some pain and suffering must be coupled with it. 
And therefore the Romish priest is provided with a 
long and frightful catalogue of every kind and degree 
of crime, to be accompanied each with a proportionate 
punishment, as far as may be, distributed exactly. 
Consider what must follow. 

The Brahmin seemed to hesitate, as if he did not 
see the evil in the same light as I did. 

There must follow, I said, first a frightful corruption 
in the mind of the priest himself. Think how the 
knowledge of sin leads to the thinking of it, and the 
thinking of it to the desire, and the desire to the act ; 
and this even in the most innocent mind. Think how 
a pure spirit must groan under the pollution thus 
forced upon it by being compelled to study and ana- 
tomize all the secret foulnesses of our nature. Think 
how they who deal with the mortal remains of man, 
and are familiar with disease and death, become cal- 
lous to disease and death ; and remember that so it 
will be with sin. Consider also that in the same 
spirit which animates the whole frame of Popery, she 
prohibits her priests from marriage, contrary not only 
to the words, but to the acts of the Apostles, of whom 
the most eminent were married themselves. And she 
does this, nominally that they may be more pure in 
the sight of God, as if God himself had not instituted, 
and Christ himself had not blessed, the marriage-bed — 
and may be more devoted to their Maker's service, as if 
that service could be well performed by men living 
under a false and unhealthy bondage. But the real ob- 
ject is that the priests, disengaged from all the ties which 
would bind them to their soil, and country, and coun- 
trymen, and king, may be as soldiers encamped in 
every region ready for service at the call of their foreign 
Lord the Bishop of Rome — their enthusiasm undis- 
turbed by domestic duties from the propagation of 
their spiritual empire ; and their whole soul and inte- 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 415 

rest absorbed in its grandeur and glory. I ask if such 
a restriction be like a minister of God, command- 
ing only what He has commanded, and forbidding 
only what he has forbidden ; and merciful and tender, 
as God declares himself in the Bible, to the frailties of 
his creatures — nor tempting 'them beyond what they 
can bear. And I ask also if it be not to tempt men 
thus circumstanced beyond what they can bear, if we 
shut them out from the purity of domestic affection* 
and compel them day by day as men, with the infirmi- 
ties of men, to busy themselves with all the grossest im- 
purities of this mortal flesh, And the task of the priest, 
moreover, is to purify others. How can he purify 
others by polluting his own thoughts? How can he 
fail to pollute instead of purify, when he is compelled 
to suggest sin in the very process of inquiring*into it ? 

Surely, said the Brahmin, our system is far better, 
which enables us, holy as we are, to enjoy all the 
blessings and comforts of a holy married life. 

It is better, I said ; and there are many other 
things in your system which speak of no common 
wisdom. Neither have you adopted this fearful prac- 
tice of universal confession. And you do not walk 
among your fellow-men, conscious of all their sins, 
with the whole burden of human corruption laid upon 
your shoulders, and constantly before your eyes, till 
there is no spot where you can turn even in hope of 
finding holiness ; and until, when all are seen to be 
corrupt around you, you necessarily become corrupt 
yourself. For this too is a fearful consequence. He 
who is a true minister of God will in all his dealings 
act as God acts. And God has not laid bare the * 
secrets of all hearts to any creature ; for a creature 
could not endure it. He does, indeed, compel con- 
fession of the penitent sinner. He compels it by the 
heavy weight which remorse lays upon the soul, and 
which nothing but confession will remove. He lays 



416 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII, 



the darkness of the soul open by many an outward 
mark, tnat grievous sins may not escape the detection 
of man, who is to guard against and punish them. 
But he has hidden our souls generally under a veil of 
flesh, and given us only accidental glimpses and 
shadowy visions of them ; lest man should know too 
well what man is, and, knowing, should cease to feel 
love, or hope, or shame, or sympathy. I say not that 
the priests of Rome may not, and do not, pass un- 
scathed through this fiery trial, or that priests of other 
churches under a far more easy ordeal do not sink 
into sin — but I ask if the system be good, if it be like 
a ministration from God ? 

And yet, I said, this is not all. We spoke of a 
catalogue of sins, and a catalogue of punishments ; for 
if to all sins a punishment must be annexed, it must 
be necessary to distinguish carefully the degrees and 
apportionments of evil. And when this is done, what 
has become of the fundamental moral truths of the Gos- 
pel ? All sins are violations of God's law, and there- 
fore in themselves, as such, all sins are equally punish- 
able. "Whosoever," says an Apostle (St. James 1 ), 
" shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, 
he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit 
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit 
no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a trans- 
gressor of the law." But he who is accustomed to 
classify sins in their various degrees of enormity must 
regard them solely as man regards them, without 
thought of God's law. And he must become recon- 
ciled to what he considers light and venial trans- 
gressions, and by degrees familiarized even to the 
more enormous ; for the bound between each is 
slight, and easily overleaped. And w r hen punishment 
is attached to evil as a means of obtaining forgiveness, 



Chap ii. 10. 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 41*7 

he must learn to think that pain is a compensation 
for sin, and so to barter one against the other ; and 
when the pleasures of sin present themselves, he will set 
against them the known amount of future pain which 
he can easily bring himself to bear ; and which being 
necessarily limited by the very nature of his being, he 
will soon become familiar with and despise. Think 
how intense the tortures which men in this country 
called holy voluntarily endure ; and then you will see 
that no anticipation of pain will deter the sinner from 
his sin. And when he has once been led to think 
that pain is an expiation for crime, his remorse will 
vent itself in voluntary tortures, and self-invented 
extravagances. . And he will look to himself as 
capable of working out his own salvation ; and will 
forget Him, our Blessed Saviour, by whose death and 
blood upon the cross only can we be cleansed. And 
thus His name and His glory will be withdrawn from 
sight, to whose name and glory we are placed here 
expressly to witness. Is this, I said, to be a faithful 
steward and minister of the mysteries of God ? I say 
not that pain, heavy and grievous pain, is not a neces- 
sary accompaniment of sin : for even if no earthly 
outward punishment ever should come, there must 
come, sooner or later, remorse ; remorse either penitent 
and humble, and lightened by the hope of reformation, 
and submitting to a sharp discipline for the subjec- 
tion of the flesh; or desperate and eternal. But it is 
for God, who knows the heart, who alone can see all 
the secret shades which make the crime more heinous 
or the punishment more heavy, to inflict pain on this 
principle of apportionment to crime. And, perchance, 
it may be that no such principle is ever acted on — that 
such apportionment is only used where punishment is a 
discipline, not a curse. And that when all discipline 
has failed to amend, and the soul is lost in unbelief, 
through sins, whether greater in the eyes of man or 
less — then but one sentence is passed on all alike, and 



418 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



that soul is cut off wholly and eternally from God and 
bliss. 

I paused, for I was unwilling to enter farther into 
this deep and mysterious subject. 

And human punishments then, asked the Brahmin, 
what of them ? 

Human punishments, I said, administered by one 
who may not sit in judgment on his brother, because 
he cannot see the heart, are perhaps only safe when 
they act as warnings against sin, as discipline to the 
sinner, as securities to society, to cut off from it under 
God's sanction the members of the body which cannot 
be permitted to remain on it without endangering the 
safety of the whole. But they cannot, I said, be safe 
when applied on the principle of compensation. They 
cannot be just, for we know not the measure either of 
compensation or guilt. They are not possible, because 
guilt in itself, and punishment, are not capable, from 
their very nature, of being divided and portioned out 
in infinite degrees ; for pain and pleasure are feelings, 
and feelings have no definite distinctions of the more 
and the less. And thus you will rind that they who 
have once adopted this principle have been compelled 
at last, from the very want of subordinate subdivisions 
and quantities of punishment, to prostitute the most 
awful to the lowest of purposes; and finding the less 
have no effect in checking disobedience, they pass on 
from greater to greater, till one heavy curse is de- 
nounced on all alike, without reference to the possible 
improvement of one offender, or the more hardened 
state of another. Or, on the other hand, they are 
content to take up the only common measure which 
we possess of earthly things — money — and to esti- 
mate each crime by it as so much gold ; granting 
indulgences, in fact, and dispensations to the rich, and 
leaving the poor hopeless and in torment. 

You do not mean, said the Brahmin, that such is 
the practice of the Roman Catholics ? 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 419 

It was once, I said, the open practice, unblushingly 
avowed ; and indulgences under this name were 
actually sold at the time when the Church of England, 
terrified and blushing at such enormities, proclaimed 
once more in the world the true Gospel of Christ. 
And even now it is practically the same. For still 
the unhappy Romanists are taught that there awaits 
them in another world an indefinite, unknown amount 
of bodily suffering, to be endured in return for, and 
in proportion to, their sins; and that relief from any 
portions of this, measured out by hundreds and thou- 
sands of days or years, may be obtained partly by 
external acts, such as saying so often so many prayers, 
or visiting so often certain consecrated places ; but 
more frequently by the prayers of the Church, which 
prayers are to be obtained for money. It is, I said, 
a subject too painful for us to dwell upon. It is not 
good for us to see too much of the sinful hearts of 
men, neither is it good to think too much upon their 
sins. Let us rather pray to God that he would turn 
the hearts of those who profess to be his ministers, that 
thev preach more faithfully his holy word of peace and 
forgiveness to the penitent, and of wrath and punish- 
ment to the wicked — wrath not to be expiated by any 
mere outward acts — punishment not to be bribed 
away by all the treasures of the earth. Think only, 
when you are assailed by the priests whom the Bishop 
of Rome sends throughout the world to spread such 
a system, and to gather gold into the coffers of 
the Church by the sale of human sins, from what 
source that system comes ; even from establishing one 
human being, and not the whole body of the Apostles, 
as a visible centre of the Church upon earth— and 
ask your Bible and the law of God, which he has 
written in your own heart, whether, when we, a true 
Apostolic Church of Christ, testify and warn you 
against it as against a false prophet, we warn vou 
idly. 



420 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [cHAF. XIII. 



And have you now finished all you would say on 
this Romish system? said the Brahmin. 

Not all which might be said, I replied ; but perhaps 
as much as may warn you against it. I have spoken 
of it only in its character as a witness to truth. 
Judge you whether its acts must not destroy its witness. 
It professes to be the servant of God, and yet it teaches 
man so to honour God's servants as to forget God 
himself, in his priests, his saints, his angels. It pro- 
fesses to adhere rigidly to a revelation given it from 
God ; but this revelation it conceals within itself, not 
being able, nor even desiring, to show that it was 
witnessed to by others. It claims a right of add- 
ing from time to time, from some secret store, to 
the doctrines already promulgated as coming from 
God, and as necessary to salvation. And when it 
would appeal to the testimony of ancient times, it 
falsifies, and confesses that it falsifies, the records of 
that history, erasing or altering whatever militates 
against its own professions. And instead of setting 
forth truth firmly and simply, though at the risk of 
losing proselytes, it adapts itself to all the weaknesses 
of human nature, and even gives encouragement to 
their sins, rather than lose its hold of them. And 
instead of recognising other human powers — powers 
which we know from God's own word to have been 
ordered by him,- and placed over us for our good and 
discipline — it not only disdains their co-operation, 
except as its own servants, but refuses to acknowledge 
their divine origin, or to submit to their authority in 
the very things which God has intrusted to them, and 
has prohibited to his spiritual ministers — temporal rule 
and interests. And its whole struggle has been a grasp- 
ing at power — its whole organization, subtly contrived 
and wonderfully managed, is a machine for subduing 
man, both body and soul, to its own will and purpose. 
And that will and purpose throughout its history has 
tended more or less to the point to which all unbalanced 



CHAP. XIII.J APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 421 

power in human hands must tend — the corruption of 
truth, the degradation of man, the demoralization of the 
world, and the disturbance and dislocation of society. 
It has been the progress of a tyranny. Yet not because 
it is a tyranny must we as Christians reject it, but 
because it is unauthorised by God ; an infraction upon 
the constitution of his Church, which he appointed 
through his Apostles ; when seen in its true and fear- 
ful shape, prophesied of, perhaps in its future full 
development, as the great enemy of Christ ; and when 
judged in its fairest form, only a dream of the human 
fancy, which strives to reduce all things to unity and 
system, where God, to meet the evils of man, has 
fixed plurality, and for a season permitted disorder ; 
and which dreams of a universal spiritual empire, in 
which the Church, before her hour of trial is over, 
shall put all enemies under her feet, instead of 
walking upon the. earth like Christ himself, humble 
and degraded, brought before kings and magistrates, 
mocked, perhaps, and scourged, and nailed to a cross, 
yet testifying through all her sufferings still more 
strongly to the truths which she bears from God, and 
sure to rise again, and sit down with Him in glory 
hereafter. 

Bear with me, I said, if I have spoken anyw T here 
too strongly of these sins of Rome ; still more if I 
have omitted to speak strongly, w T here there is a 
danger to your own soul. I speak only as the great 
Fathers of our Church have spoken before, who never 
dallied with or spoke softly of this fearful power. 
And when you hear the Missionary condemn it, as 
he wall condemn it, remember only where its corrup- 
tions lie. It is not in referring to an Apostolical 
source for her doctrines and her authority, but in 
failing to refer to it really. We, who do refer to it, 
know that it never sanctions them. It is not in em- 
ploying human voices and human hands in the service 

PART 1. 2 O 



422 



CONSTITUTION OF THE [CHAP. XIII. 



of God's Church, but in failing to employ them ; that 
is, in converting her human agents into Gods before 
the eyes of men. It is not in appealing to tradition 
as the channel for conveying the truth, but in prac- 
tically denying tradition ; in setting up a doctrine of 
her own, which she has not received by tradition. It 
is not in subjecting men to human powers and spi- 
ritual discipline, but in teaching them to set power at 
nought, and in opening a door for all licence and self- 
will. It is not in erecting too high the privileges 
which God has given to his Bishops, the rulers of 
his Church, but in pulling down those privileges, 
and in humbling all other Bishops, that one may 
have rule over all. It is not iu insisting on the ne- 
cessity of preserving Christ's Church in unity of 
heart and spirit, but in destroying that unity by 
creating in it a tyrannical power, distracting men's 
minds with multitude? of authoritative doctrines, and 
their obedience by a divided allegiance between the 
Pope and their kings, and their hearts by the 
oppressions and extortions of a grasping temporal 
dominion. It is not in preserving forms, and order, 
and a decent ceremonial as means of exhibiting the 
truth, but in not preserving them — in setting aside 
those which did exhibit truths, and in introducing 
others which only encourage falsehood and deceit. 
It is not in holding up God's sacraments as means of 
grace, but in undervaluing and tampering with 
those sacraments; substituting for the vow of Baptism, 
which binds us to all good works, another vow in 
after life, which would bind men to another rule, as if 
neither the vow of Baptism nor the life to wTiich it 
pledged us were sufficiently high or good, and as if 
something must be added of human fancy and device 
to complete the perfection of a Christian ; and in the 
other awful Sacrament of our redemption, robbing 
her unhappy children of half the blessing given to 



CHAP. XIII.] APOSTOLIC BODY, AND THE CHURCH. 423 

them by God, by refusing them the cup of Christ's 
blood. This is deep and mysterious language, which 
at present you cannot understand ; but you will 
hear more of it hereafter. And lastly, it is not in 
holding up, as she vainly boasts, God's truth through- 
out the earth in defiance of the powers of the w r orld, 
but in shrinking from this her duty, overawed by 
those very powers; in lowering her doctrines, adapt- 
ing her practices, corrupting her tone, lest these 
powers should rebel against her ; and. in becoming one 
of those powers herself — a greedy, grasping, restless, 
covetous, arbitrary earthly power, thinking of rule, 
and of that which follows rule — wealth, and of that 
which follows wealth, luxury and ease, and not of 
truth. May God in his mercy save us from falling 
into her snares ! 

The Brahmin sat thinking for a time on what he 
had heard. And you would rather, he said at last, 
that I w r ould not bring the Romanist w T hom I spoke 
of, to join our conversation to-morrow r ? 

I would rather not, I said — not, at least, if he has 
exhibited to you any of the symptoms of which I have 
here spoken, of a Popish spirit, of that spirit which 
pervades the system, and in which, however smothered 
it may be in the hearts of individual Romanists, as 
it is coupled with zeal and energy in all, I can see 
nothing but harm, and despair of seeing it corrected, 
except by the judgments of God. 

I will not, then, invite him to join us, said the 
Brahmin ; but we ourselves may meet, I hope, as 
usual to-morrow. 



END OF THE FIRST PART. 



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